Google, YouTube and the future of the American worker
RELATED: GOOGLE CEO SUNDAR PICHAI SAYS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY MUST EMPOWER WORKERS, NOT ALIENATE THEM
Artificial intelligence is a topic that has famously divided two other tech titans: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The Facebook CEO has made the case that AI can improve lives, while Tesla founder Musk has warned we need to be cautious.
"I'm not personally scared," sad Wojcicki. "We live in a time of important technological change and we need to communicate what we're doing."
While embracing technological change is important, Pichai said the worries over whether AI can swoop in and steal human jobs is valid.
Not only will government need to play a role, he said, but it is also "going to be important to continuously train people." Whereas two or three decades ago, people would go to school and that would serve them through their careers, he said "that's not going to be the case any longer."
The need for digital savvy is continuing to grow. Jobs requiring ?medium-digital? skills in the United States have grown from 40 percent in 2002 to 48 percent in 2016, according to a report from the Brookings Institute.
With a technology skills gap, there's also the question of the future of foreign-born tech workers in the United States. While they're the backbone of Silicon Valley, the Trump administration has already tightened H-1B visa rules.
Pichai was born in India. Wojcicki is the daughter of immigrants. Both know the important role foreign technology talent plays in Silicon Valley, whether that be at their companies or founding start-ups.
Nearly three-quarters of tech workers in Silicon Valley are foreign born, according to a report.
"We want to be a company that has a point of view," said Wojcicki. "H-1B is important to our company in terms of competitiveness. We have many individuals who feel immigration is important. At the same time, we want to be working with the government we have. We are a company with many different users.
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