Larry Page shared future plans

Google is fine-tuned to make money — big, very big money. However, CEO Larry Page does not like to talk a lot about this part of the colossal search engine, which he co-founded 15 years ago, at least in public. Instead, Page prefers to think about how the resources of the third largest company in the world can help to realize his optimistic vision of the technological future.

Last week, in an interview with famous TV presenter Charlie Rose at the TED conference, Page outlined a version of the plan for future decades, which could well become a daily reality for everyone if the company's previous successes mean something.

A forty-year-old billionaire who suffers from a chronic disease that affects his voice, rarely speaks in public. During the 25-minute interview, his voice sounded soft, but confident, as he shared his opinion on Google’s multi-faceted future. Most of what Page was talking about was about listing projects that Google is currently working on. But when the CEO connected them into one, everyone had the impression that the company truly embodies his idealistic vision of the future. This is a vision that encompasses everything from widespread artificial intelligence to self-driving cars and high-altitude balloons that will provide the most remote corners of the planet with Internet access.

New search

But it all starts with the search - the thing that Google does best. And yet, despite advances in network structuring, Page says that the use of computers is still "inefficient." “Chaos reigns in the computer,” he says. “Your computer does not know where you are. He does not know what you are doing. He doesn't know what you know. ”To change this, an improved search is needed.
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In this regard, Google, led by Page, is developing tools like Google Now, which tries to predict what you need before you ask. “Google Glass” is a wearable headset that displays information on a display, which is also designed to solve the problem of outputting digital data directly over the things that people see in reality.

And although Paget did not say it directly, these efforts also represent Google’s attempt to curb the driving force that eludes desktop search and direct it to other products that the company can use as platforms for its advertising business.

Balloons and cars

At the forefront of Google’s search engine improvement is the creation of an artificial mind. Page describes setting up a machine-thinking algorithm for a computer to watch a huge number of videos on YouTube and its "learning" without any prior knowledge. It was not so important for people to know that the name of this process is “cat”, but how to create a composite image for this. He showed videos of similar self-learning machines tuned in to the old Atari RiverRaid and Enduro video games, and they were not programmed to know the rules, but over time they mastered them perfectly.

Paige then moved from the search area to the physical world, describing Google’s high goal of creating a “worldwide cell” of connecting to the Internet using huge balloons as a wireless access point. Rose also asked Page about his passion for transportation systems, to which he replied that the starting point of this project was his waiting for the bus under the snow in his alma mater of the University of Michigan. Page hopes that one day the Google project of self-driving cars will transform many cities in the world.

He believes that the systematization of transport will make it possible to use the space of cities for something more useful than for parking and roads. “It's just crazy how we use our free space,” he says.

Bet on business for a better future

Rose picked up the theme of the implementation of Page's plans through Google: the belief that business is the best way to translate his version of a better future. Rose asked Page about the opinion that he had voiced earlier that he would better give all his property to Ilon Mask than to chance. Paige agreed, calling the idea of ​​Mask to send people to Mars "to support the life of mankind," a worthy goal. “This is a company, and it is a charity,” he says.

However, Paige found words that sounded harsh even with his soft voice. They related to companies that do not aspire to the same high goals as Ilon Musk or Google. “Most people think that companies, by and large, are evil. They have a bad reputation. And I think there’s some truth in that, ”says Page. “The activity of the companies is focused on the same half measures as 50 and 20 years ago. We need completely different things. This is especially true of technology - we need revolutionary changes. ”

Of course, it's easy to say that when your company sells its shares for $ 1,200 apiece, and when you earn tens of billions a year, thanks to your main business selling advertising. But Page definitely seems to be the person for whom this advertisement is only a means to achieve the goal, and this goal is not self-enrichment. Page wants to create a future in which we all end up living.

Article translated specifically for the corporate blog Host-tracker.com - service monitoring site performance.