Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has said the company looks ready to go from strength to strength as global demand for more AI technology continues unabated.
Fresh from hosting the opening key on the company’s Google Cloud next 25 in Las Vegas, Kurian told a media Q&A session participated by Techradar Pro About the latest challenges that the company faces, as well as its myriad of successes.
“(AI) simplifies the technology itself,” Kurian said in the session, “You have the same technology that drives Google, available to every small business … By simplifying the technology you bring it to everyone.”
“Extremely dynamic” customs situation
“If you look at the highest level of what we’re trying to do – it’s relatively simple,” Kurian noted, highlighting how Google Cloud has expanded its global footprint to cover 42 regions around the world, and more coming soon.
“Our success is not reflected in what we do, but what customers and partners do with our technology,” he added.
“We are very well placed because of the width of our portfolio – but also because of the differentiation in what we do with AI.”
When asked about the possible effects of US tariffs on business all over the world, Kurian replied with a smile that the customs discussion is “an extremely dynamic” and that Google Cloud has been through many bikes like this (most recently in the Kovide crisis) and that he was convinced that the company will also be able to navigate this period.
“There are many, many things we do as a technology provider – we work as a global company in a geopolitical context, and our solution to it is working with governments to adapt our technology to government rules so that customers can use it in different markets.”
Kurian was also asked how Google Cloud plans to deal with the rising energy costs caused by the growth in demand for AI.
He said the company has done “a lot of work” in the last two years to “tremendously reduce” the cost of training and inferencing models, noting that the company will continue to optimize the cost of serving models while improving quality.
Kurian added that Google Cloud has more than seven times the water-cooled AI systems like the rest of the world combined, and also worked to implement nuclear power and sustainable energy sources such as hydropower and solar energy.
“For us, it is really important that people see AI as a technology that can also drive both efficiency in energy consumption and also created new forms of energy because of the investments we make.”
