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| Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai speaks during a meeting with Korean startup entrepreneurs at the Seoul Campus in Samseong-dong. / Courtesy of Google Korea |
By Yoon Sung-won
Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said that machine learning technology will be at the center of future innovations the company will develop.
"Our mission is to systematically organize all the information around the world. I think we can use machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies for this," Pichai said during a meeting with startup entrepreneurs in Seoul, Tuesday.
The CEO also said diverse applications such as voice and image recognition, smart healthcare and self-driving cars will become possible based on machine learning technology.
"Voice and image recognition technology has seen significant improvements during the last few years. Self-driving cars can automatically recognize humans and stop signs based on machine learning technology," Pichai said. "This technology will enable a lot of things once it is applied in many fields, such as healthcare, for example. We are focusing on developing our capabilities in this sector."
Citing that more than a hundred deaths from car accidents happen every day in the United States, Pichai said that autonomous driving technology, powered by computer science, will fundamentally solve this problem.
In 2014, Google opened its Seoul Campus here to support IT startups.
Pichai said learning from experience and failure is important in running a startup.
"In running a startup, specific outcomes of something do not matter. The journey matters more than the outcome," he said.
Envisioning long-term partnerships with Korean IT conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, he advised them to acquire promising startups to strengthen their competitiveness in the software sector.
"I think Korea's large IT enterprises are doing great things like coming up with new products and commercializing them on a large scale that companies outside the country cannot do," the CEO said. "Korea needs to consider how to adapt to the rapid changes in the global software sector and acquiring startups will be an effective way for them to do that."
After joining Google in 2004, Pichai worked with the company's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and developed the Chrome web browser. In 2014, he became the head of all Google products and platform services and led the development of Google's search engine, map, communication, Android mobile operating system and Google Play application store.
He was promoted to CEO of Google in August this year, after Eric Schmidt became chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet.
Pichai, who arrived in Korea, Monday, is expected to meet with high-ranking officials from the nation's IT industry.
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