Yahoo Finance Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the next phase of AI: ‘We need to have this conversation now’
Eric Schmidt discusses artificial intelligence's capabilities, the timeline for AI transformation, and competition among early adopters.
ChatGPT created a turning point for artificial intelligence that even former Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt didn't see coming.
"I didn't believe this a year ago, and I believe the industry has gone through this watershed moment and is addressing it," Schmidt, also co-founder of Schmidt Futures, told Yahoo Finance at the 2023 Milken Global Conference (video above).
What matters now is what we do next, he added.
"Collectively, we have to have this conversation now," Schmidt said, pointing out some of the pitfalls in the haphazard way social media developed. "I think that the good news in America is when these things happen, everyone has an opinion, and everybody gets to be heard."
In more ways than one, Schmidt has been ahead of the curve when it comes to AI. In 2021, he even co-authored "The Age of AI" with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and MIT's Dan Huttenlocher. He's been impressed with Open AI-built ChatGPT, but also circumspect about what it can do and what it can't do.
"I describe ChatGPT as a college student that got an A in English and writing, and a C or a D in facts," Schmidt said. "With ChatGPT, it begins to hallucinate. It gets confused. ... And so the task now is to build systems that are much more knowledgeable and make many fewer errors, and that's underway."
'I don't want us to give up our lead' on AI
As those next iterations of AI are being built and tested, corporate America has a delicate line to walk as companies brace for massive changes. On the one hand, the changes will take some time. On the other, those who adopt the technology early will likely have a major advantage, Schmidt said.
"It's a very large [change] because the arrival of intelligence means the systems will become much more powerful, and so the companies that adopt AI soon will get an economic advantage," he told Yahoo Finance. "It will take a while, though, before we really see the implications of this. This stuff is only six months old, so we have enormous hype and great excitement. If you look at the history of technology, it's a decade before you really see the transformative nature of it."
AI regulation will be important moving forward, but developers and lawmakers are still feeling around in the dark as to what that might look like. In that respect, the US isn't alone.
"At the moment, Europe is doing almost nothing in this space, so we don't really have any examples," Schmidt said. "They have a law which requires that the system be able to explain itself if it's used in something critical. By definition, these systems today can't explain themselves — by the way, nor could your teenager if you have a teenager."
In March, Schmidt testified before the House Oversight Committee, making the case that the US needs to take the lead or else risk the technological and economic advantages it's built so far. In that testimony, he also noted that the advance of AI is "inevitable."
"Frankly, this technology was invented in the United States," he told Yahoo Finance. "I don't want us to give our lead up to the Europeans or the Chinese or anybody else, and I want us to now address the shortcomings while we harness this incredible stuff."
Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn.
Click here for the latest trending stock tickers of the Yahoo Finance platform.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance.
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
