Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Now, experts have struggle to get an accurate picture of just how many jobs will be eliminated as artificial intelligence advances. One tracker has actually reported US firms have announced to four thousand, six hundred job cuts since may relate it to artificial intelligence, but there are fears that this could be a vast underestimate. Now, of course, one of the companies at the forefront, very forefront of AI development at Google, and the firm just announced twenty five million euros of funding to support AI training and skills for people across at Europe. Well, I'm very pleased to be joined for an exclusive conversation by Google's president of Business and Operations, and you're the Middle East and Africa, not Britain. Matt As always, thank you so much for joining us. When you look at some of the changes in AI and what that means for job losses, can you quantify it and what does retraining actually look like?

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Now, experts have struggle to get an accurate picture of just how many jobs will be eliminated as artificial intelligence advances. One tracker has actually reported US firms have announced to four thousand, six hundred job cuts since may relate it to artificial intelligence, but there are fears that this could be a vast underestimate. Now, of course, one of the companies at the forefront, very forefront of AI development at Google, and the firm just announced twenty five million euros of funding to support AI training and skills for people across at Europe. Well, I'm very pleased to be joined for an exclusive conversation by Google's president of Business and Operations, and you're the Middle East and Africa, not Britain. Matt As always, thank you so much for joining us. When you look at some of the changes in AI and what that means for job losses, can you quantify it and what does retraining actually look like?

Yeah, I mean I think there's an array of analysis out there, isn't there, But the most important thing is that we make sure that is left behind behind by AI. Actually, an estimate of one point two trillion euros one point to trillion euros of economic growth in Europe if we land it. Well, it's definitely the case that the work we do will change. For most people, what they do within their jobs is likely to shift. For some people maybe the work will go away, and those are the ones we really need to make sure we retrain. But then there'll be whole new industries. You know, when I left university, the web haven't been invented, and for the last twenty years I've worked in the job that depended on it. We didn't have web designers and data analysts and so on. Then, so I think there's an overall huge opportunity. And the reason we're launching this Opportunity initiative for Europe with twenty five million euros is to make sure that we don't leave anybody behind.

Yeah, I mean I think there's an array of analysis out there, isn't there, But the most important thing is that we make sure that is left behind behind by AI. Actually, an estimate of one point two trillion euros one point to trillion euros of economic growth in Europe if we land it. Well, it's definitely the case that the work we do will change. For most people, what they do within their jobs is likely to shift. For some people maybe the work will go away, and those are the ones we really need to make sure we retrain. But then there'll be whole new industries. You know, when I left university, the web haven't been invented, and for the last twenty years I've worked in the job that depended on it. We didn't have web designers and data analysts and so on. Then, so I think there's an overall huge opportunity. And the reason we're launching this Opportunity initiative for Europe with twenty five million euros is to make sure that we don't leave anybody behind.

Yeah, but Matt, I guess the difficulty is you don't really know where we'll end up, so we don't really know the skills needed for tomorrow. Do you do this with governments? How do you see? If I tell you, look, Matt, Britain, what does the workforce look like in five and then ten years? How do you answer that? Yeah?

Yeah, but Matt, I guess the difficulty is you don't really know where we'll end up, so we don't really know the skills needed for tomorrow. Do you do this with governments? How do you see? If I tell you, look, Matt, Britain, what does the workforce look like in five and then ten years? How do you answer that? Yeah?

Well, the good news is We've had some experience here so and I took this role eight years ago there was a digital skills gap in Europe and we set out to try and train a million Europeans in digital skills. Now eight years later, we've trained twelve million, and we've worked with government ministries of labor, small business associations, trade unions and others to bring digital skills to everyone. And that's why we're confident in this twenty five million euro Opportunity initiative that we're going to try to reach out to those people who are perhaps the most vulnerable or in underserved communities. Ten millions euro straightaway is going towards reaching workers who are likely to be most vulnerable. We're also boosting our growth academy for startups, which is most people affected by AI will be an AI using economy. Startups are likely to be the AI building economy, So we're launching an effort with health to begin with there and then building on our digital skills stuff. We've got AI fundamentals for everyone and we're making that available in eighteen more languages today. So I think the right thing to do here is say that AI has a huge opportunity to help all of us in science, health, work, education and life. But there's a risk that some are left behind, and that's why we need to lean in together with governments and others to make sure that we're equip for the future. You're right, we don't know exactly what those jobs are, but we do know people will need to be able to be get confident in using the schools.

Well, the good news is We've had some experience here so and I took this role eight years ago there was a digital skills gap in Europe and we set out to try and train a million Europeans in digital skills. Now eight years later, we've trained twelve million, and we've worked with government ministries of labor, small business associations, trade unions and others to bring digital skills to everyone. And that's why we're confident in this twenty five million euro Opportunity initiative that we're going to try to reach out to those people who are perhaps the most vulnerable or in underserved communities. Ten millions euro straightaway is going towards reaching workers who are likely to be most vulnerable. We're also boosting our growth academy for startups, which is most people affected by AI will be an AI using economy. Startups are likely to be the AI building economy, So we're launching an effort with health to begin with there and then building on our digital skills stuff. We've got AI fundamentals for everyone and we're making that available in eighteen more languages today. So I think the right thing to do here is say that AI has a huge opportunity to help all of us in science, health, work, education and life. But there's a risk that some are left behind, and that's why we need to lean in together with governments and others to make sure that we're equip for the future. You're right, we don't know exactly what those jobs are, but we do know people will need to be able to be get confident in using the schools.

How does an AI regulation in Europe actually affect I guess you're a development and roll out of AI products versus the rest of the world.

How does an AI regulation in Europe actually affect I guess you're a development and roll out of AI products versus the rest of the world.

Yeah. I think what we see in Europe is incredible skills and desire for AI. When you survey people, the vast majority of Europeans believe that AI can have a benefit to them and to society, so there's a desire to see it landed. But what the surveys tell us across seventeen thousand Europeans and others is that they want governments and technology companies to work together to make the technology safe and accessible to everyone. Now, today's initiative is making sure that it's accessible to everyone.

Yeah. I think what we see in Europe is incredible skills and desire for AI. When you survey people, the vast majority of Europeans believe that AI can have a benefit to them and to society, so there's a desire to see it landed. But what the surveys tell us across seventeen thousand Europeans and others is that they want governments and technology companies to work together to make the technology safe and accessible to everyone. Now, today's initiative is making sure that it's accessible to everyone.

It's safe.

It's safe.

That's for the regulators to set out the guardrails and the AI Act in Europe. The ink is just drawing on that, and that has been a two or three year engagement with companies like ours and communities to try to come up with good rules of the road. And now the devil's in the detail of how we apply that. But we think it's such an important technology it needs to be regulated so that we can harness it for good for everyone.

That's for the regulators to set out the guardrails and the AI Act in Europe. The ink is just drawing on that, and that has been a two or three year engagement with companies like ours and communities to try to come up with good rules of the road. And now the devil's in the detail of how we apply that. But we think it's such an important technology it needs to be regulated so that we can harness it for good for everyone.

And is it really if you look at, for example, your cloud business, is it all about AI that's driving demand or is it a little bit more balanced.

And is it really if you look at, for example, your cloud business, is it all about AI that's driving demand or is it a little bit more balanced.

Yeah, there's an array of things, but I think a couple of things. I'd say that. You know, it's easy for people to think that AI and chatbots are the same thing. Actually AI has been around for much longer, and it's much more than chatbots. So you know, seven or eight years ago at Google we'd tried to pivot to be an AI first company, and Google Translates is perhaps where it was born. You know. The connection of languages and understanding languages led to technical breakthroughs and these things called large language models, which are now powering lots of the generative AIU see. But AI is useful for so much and the most exciting areas I think for society are scientific and health breakthrough. So if I take researchers into vaccines that's been top of mind for some time, or drugs or crop resilience, that depends on understanding proteins. And a few years ago, there are about one hundred and seventy five thousand proteins that have been painstakingly identified in three D structure by PhD students. It would take five years for one PhD student to find one three D structure of a protein. Now alpha fold, built by my colleagues at Google d Mind, changed all that and in a matter of months they catalog two hundred million proteins. They're available for free to every expert working in this area, and now one point seven million experts are using alpha fold and that database of proteins to advance drug discovery, disease research, crop resilience research. So I think things like that which maybe people don't see when they see the headlines about AI, that are changing what's going to be possible about methods

Yeah, there's an array of things, but I think a couple of things. I'd say that. You know, it's easy for people to think that AI and chatbots are the same thing. Actually AI has been around for much longer, and it's much more than chatbots. So you know, seven or eight years ago at Google we'd tried to pivot to be an AI first company, and Google Translates is perhaps where it was born. You know. The connection of languages and understanding languages led to technical breakthroughs and these things called large language models, which are now powering lots of the generative AIU see. But AI is useful for so much and the most exciting areas I think for society are scientific and health breakthrough. So if I take researchers into vaccines that's been top of mind for some time, or drugs or crop resilience, that depends on understanding proteins. And a few years ago, there are about one hundred and seventy five thousand proteins that have been painstakingly identified in three D structure by PhD students. It would take five years for one PhD student to find one three D structure of a protein. Now alpha fold, built by my colleagues at Google d Mind, changed all that and in a matter of months they catalog two hundred million proteins. They're available for free to every expert working in this area, and now one point seven million experts are using alpha fold and that database of proteins to advance drug discovery, disease research, crop resilience research. So I think things like that which maybe people don't see when they see the headlines about AI, that are changing what's going to be possible about methods