TED2014
Larry Page: Where's Google going next?
Filmed:
Readability: 3.5
2,575,315 views
Onstage at TED2014, Google CEO Larry Page talks about his far-off vision for the company. It includes aerial bikeways and internet balloons ... and then it gets even more interesting, as Page talks through the company's recent acquisition of Deep Mind, an AI that is learning some surprising things.
Larry Page - CEO of Google
Larry Page is the CEO and cofounder of Google, making him one of the ruling minds of the web. Full bio
Larry Page is the CEO and cofounder of Google, making him one of the ruling minds of the web. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
Charlie Rose: So Larry sent me an email
0
1381
3626
00:17
and he basically said,
1
5007
1987
00:18
we've got to make sure that
we don't seem like we're
we don't seem like we're
2
6994
3729
00:22
a couple of middle-aged boring men.
3
10723
4491
00:27
I said, I'm flattered by that --
4
15214
3042
00:30
(Laughter) —
5
18256
2372
00:32
because I'm a bit older,
6
20628
3515
00:36
and he has a bit more net worth than I do.
7
24143
4151
00:40
Larry Page: Well, thank you.
8
28294
2599
00:42
CR: So we'll have a conversation about
9
30893
2980
00:45
the Internet, and we'll have a conversation Google,
10
33873
2698
00:48
and we'll have a conversation about search
11
36571
1434
00:50
and privacy,
12
38005
1367
00:51
and also about your philosophy
13
39372
1555
00:52
and a sense of how you've connected the dots
14
40927
2456
00:55
and how this journey that began
15
43383
2091
00:57
some time ago
16
45474
1284
00:58
has such interesting prospects.
17
46758
1895
01:00
Mainly we want to talk about the future.
18
48653
2596
01:03
So my first question: Where is Google
19
51249
1589
01:04
and where is it going?
20
52838
2046
01:06
LP: Well, this is something we think about a lot,
21
54884
1459
01:08
and our mission we defined a long time ago
22
56343
3575
01:11
is to organize the world's information
23
59918
2263
01:14
and make it universally accessible and useful.
24
62181
3438
01:17
And people always say,
25
65619
2042
01:19
is that really what you guys are still doing?
26
67661
2215
01:21
And I always kind of think about that myself,
27
69876
2118
01:23
and I'm not quite sure.
28
71994
2196
01:26
But actually, when I think about search,
29
74190
4007
01:30
it's such a deep thing for all of us,
30
78197
2616
01:32
to really understand what you want,
31
80813
2243
01:35
to understand the world's information,
32
83056
2368
01:37
and we're still very much in the early stages of that,
33
85424
3532
01:40
which is totally crazy.
34
88956
1813
01:42
We've been at it for 15 years already,
35
90769
2518
01:45
but it's not at all done.
36
93287
3575
01:48
CR: When it's done, how will it be?
37
96862
2676
01:51
LP: Well, I guess,
38
99538
2717
01:54
in thinking about where we're going --
39
102255
2400
01:56
you know, why is it not done? --
40
104655
2287
01:58
a lot of it is just computing's kind of a mess.
41
106942
2436
02:01
You know, your computer
doesn't know where you are,
doesn't know where you are,
42
109378
1803
02:03
it doesn't know what you're doing,
43
111181
2035
02:05
it doesn't know what you know,
44
113216
1682
02:06
and a lot we've been trying to do recently
45
114898
2576
02:09
is just make your devices work,
46
117474
3295
02:12
make them understand your context.
47
120769
2341
02:15
Google Now, you know, knows where you are,
48
123110
2003
02:17
knows what you may need.
49
125113
2182
02:19
So really having computing
work and understand you
work and understand you
50
127295
4108
02:23
and understand that information,
51
131403
2056
02:25
we really haven't done that yet.
52
133459
2310
02:27
It's still very, very clunky.
53
135769
1549
02:29
CR: Tell me, when you look at what Google is doing,
54
137318
2366
02:31
where does Deep Mind fit?
55
139684
2969
02:34
LP: Yeah, so Deep Mind is a company
56
142653
1584
02:36
we just acquired recently.
57
144237
2531
02:38
It's in the U.K.
58
146768
3082
02:41
First, let me tell you the way we got there,
59
149850
2654
02:44
which was looking at search
60
152504
2228
02:46
and really understanding,
61
154732
1623
02:48
trying to understand everything,
62
156355
2233
02:50
and also make the computers not clunky
63
158588
1605
02:52
and really understand you --
64
160193
2201
02:54
like, voice was really important.
65
162394
2112
02:56
So what's the state of the art
on speech recognition?
on speech recognition?
66
164506
2861
02:59
It's not very good.
67
167367
1660
03:01
It doesn't really understand you.
68
169027
2066
03:03
So we started doing machine learning research
69
171093
2003
03:05
to improve that.
70
173096
1537
03:06
That helped a lot.
71
174633
1703
03:08
And we started just looking at things like YouTube.
72
176336
2367
03:10
Can we understand YouTube?
73
178703
1968
03:12
But we actually ran machine learning on YouTube
74
180671
2686
03:15
and it discovered cats, just by itself.
75
183357
4085
03:19
Now, that's an important concept.
76
187442
2091
03:21
And we realized there's really something here.
77
189533
2991
03:24
If we can learn what cats are,
78
192524
2117
03:26
that must be really important.
79
194641
2075
03:28
So I think Deep Mind,
80
196716
2629
03:31
what's really amazing about Deep Mind
81
199345
2364
03:33
is that it can actually --
82
201709
2004
03:35
they're learning things in this unsupervised way.
83
203713
3557
03:39
They started with video games,
84
207270
2567
03:41
and really just, maybe I can show the video,
85
209837
2493
03:44
just playing video games,
86
212330
2204
03:46
and learning how to do that automatically.
87
214534
2015
03:48
CR: Take a look at the video games
88
216549
1852
03:50
and how machines are coming to be able
89
218401
2410
03:52
to do some remarkable things.
90
220811
2456
03:55
LP: The amazing thing about this
91
223267
1329
03:56
is this is, I mean, obviously,
92
224596
1680
03:58
these are old games,
93
226276
1474
03:59
but the system just sees what you see, the pixels,
94
227750
4798
04:04
and it has the controls and it has the score,
95
232548
2431
04:06
and it's learned to play all of these games,
96
234979
2211
04:09
same program.
97
237190
1579
04:10
It's learned to play all of these games
98
238769
2037
04:12
with superhuman performance.
99
240806
1786
04:14
We've not been able to do things like this
100
242592
1855
04:16
with computers before.
101
244447
1518
04:17
And maybe I'll just narrate this one quickly.
102
245965
2295
04:20
This is boxing, and it figures out it can
103
248260
2805
04:23
sort of pin the opponent down.
104
251065
2634
04:25
The computer's on the left,
105
253699
1739
04:27
and it's just racking up points.
106
255438
3085
04:30
So imagine if this kind
107
258523
2086
04:32
of intelligence were thrown at your schedule,
108
260609
2127
04:34
or your information needs, or things like that.
109
262736
4637
04:39
We're really just at the beginning of that,
110
267373
2618
04:41
and that's what I'm really excited about.
111
269991
2365
04:44
CR: When you look at all that's taken place
112
272356
2470
04:46
with Deep Mind and the boxing,
113
274826
2584
04:49
also a part of where we're going
114
277410
2340
04:51
is artificial intelligence.
115
279750
2889
04:54
Where are we, when you look at that?
116
282639
2799
04:57
LP: Well, I think for me,
117
285438
1785
04:59
this is kind of one of the most exciting things
118
287223
1503
05:00
I've seen in a long time.
119
288726
1912
05:02
The guy who started this company, Demis,
120
290638
2413
05:05
has a neuroscience and a
computer science background.
computer science background.
121
293051
2778
05:07
He went back to school
122
295829
1630
05:09
to get his Ph.D. to study the brain.
123
297459
3126
05:12
And so I think we're seeing a lot of exciting work
124
300585
2620
05:15
going on that sort of crosses computer science
125
303205
3081
05:18
and neuroscience
126
306286
1750
05:20
in terms of really understanding
127
308036
2325
05:22
what it takes to make something smart
128
310361
2454
05:24
and do really interesting things.
129
312815
1715
05:26
CR: But where's the level of it now?
130
314530
2138
05:28
And how fast do you think we are moving?
131
316668
2706
05:31
LP: Well, this is the state of the art right now,
132
319374
3269
05:34
understanding cats on YouTube
133
322643
2131
05:36
and things like that,
134
324774
1283
05:38
improving voice recognition.
135
326057
2147
05:40
We used a lot of machine learning
136
328204
2418
05:42
to improve things incrementally,
137
330622
2479
05:45
but I think for me, this example's really exciting,
138
333101
3394
05:48
because it's one program
139
336495
2243
05:50
that can do a lot of different things.
140
338738
2044
05:52
CR: I don't know if we can do this,
141
340782
1138
05:53
but we've got the image of the cat.
142
341920
1185
05:55
It would be wonderful to see this.
143
343105
1754
05:56
This is how machines looked at cats
144
344859
2509
05:59
and what they came up with.
145
347368
1115
06:00
Can we see that image?
146
348483
1055
06:01
LP: Yeah.
CR: There it is. Can you see the cat?
CR: There it is. Can you see the cat?
147
349538
2402
06:03
Designed by machines, seen by machines.
148
351940
2027
06:05
LP: That's right.
149
353967
1110
06:07
So this is learned from just watching YouTube.
150
355077
2607
06:09
And there's no training,
151
357684
1867
06:11
no notion of a cat,
152
359551
1384
06:12
but this concept of a cat
153
360935
2561
06:15
is something important that you would understand,
154
363496
2808
06:18
and now that the machines can kind of understand.
155
366304
2523
06:20
Maybe just finishing
156
368827
1172
06:21
also on the search part,
157
369999
2222
06:24
it started with search, really understanding
158
372221
2786
06:27
people's context and their information.
159
375007
2564
06:29
I did have a video
160
377571
1860
06:31
I wanted to show quickly on that
161
379431
2010
06:33
that we actually found.
162
381441
1647
06:35
(Video) ["Soy, Kenya"]
163
383088
5112
06:40
Zack Matere: Not long ago,
164
388580
1872
06:42
I planted a crop of potatoes.
165
390452
2586
06:45
Then suddenly they started
dying one after the other.
dying one after the other.
166
393038
3400
06:48
I checked out the books and
they didn't tell me much.
they didn't tell me much.
167
396438
2750
06:51
So, I went and I did a search.
168
399188
1946
06:53
["Zack Matere, Farmer"]
169
401134
3119
06:57
Potato diseases.
170
405609
3147
07:00
One of the websites told me
171
408756
1728
07:02
that ants could be the problem.
172
410484
1902
07:04
It said, sprinkle wood ash over the plants.
173
412386
2271
07:06
Then after a few days the ants disappeared.
174
414657
2284
07:08
I got excited about the Internet.
175
416941
2594
07:11
I have this friend
176
419535
1665
07:13
who really would like to expand his business.
177
421200
3618
07:16
So I went with him to the cyber cafe
178
424818
3195
07:20
and we checked out several sites.
179
428013
2541
07:22
When I met him next, he was going to put a windmill
180
430554
2541
07:25
at the local school.
181
433095
2694
07:27
I felt proud because
182
435789
1604
07:29
something that wasn't there before
183
437393
2028
07:31
was suddenly there.
184
439421
1887
07:33
I realized that not everybody
185
441308
2690
07:35
can be able to access
186
443998
1534
07:37
what I was able to access.
187
445532
1486
07:39
I thought that I need to have an Internet
188
447018
1838
07:40
that my grandmother can use.
189
448856
1801
07:42
So I thought about a notice board.
190
450657
2457
07:45
A simple wooden notice board.
191
453114
1916
07:47
When I get information on my phone,
192
455030
2315
07:49
I'm able to post the information
193
457345
2237
07:51
on the notice board.
194
459582
1722
07:53
So it's basically like a computer.
195
461304
2858
07:56
I use the Internet to help people.
196
464162
3889
08:00
I think I am searching for
197
468051
3410
08:03
a better life
198
471461
1541
08:05
for me and my neighbors.
199
473002
4114
08:09
So many people have access to information,
200
477116
3984
08:13
but there's no follow-up to that.
201
481100
2581
08:15
I think the follow-up to that is our knowledge.
202
483681
2508
08:18
When people have the knowledge,
203
486189
1606
08:19
they can find solutions
204
487795
1630
08:21
without having to helped out.
205
489425
1984
08:23
Information is powerful,
206
491440
2121
08:25
but it is how we use it that will define us.
207
493561
4602
08:30
(Applause)
208
498163
4381
08:34
LP: Now, the amazing thing about that video,
209
502544
2546
08:37
actually, was we just read about it in the news,
210
505090
1466
08:38
and we found this gentlemen,
211
506556
2505
08:41
and made that little clip.
212
509061
2315
08:43
CR: When I talk to people about you,
213
511376
1391
08:44
they say to me, people who know you well, say,
214
512767
2605
08:47
Larry wants to change the world,
215
515372
1891
08:49
and he believes technology can show the way.
216
517263
4112
08:53
And that means access to the Internet.
217
521375
1858
08:55
It has to do with languages.
218
523233
1731
08:56
It also means how people can get access
219
524964
2829
08:59
and do things that will affect their community,
220
527793
2706
09:02
and this is an example.
221
530499
2493
09:04
LP: Yeah, that's right, and I think for me,
222
532992
3576
09:08
I have been focusing on access more,
223
536568
2382
09:10
if we're talking about the future.
224
538950
2198
09:13
We recently released this Loon Project
225
541148
2674
09:15
which is using balloons to do it.
226
543822
2300
09:18
It sounds totally crazy.
227
546122
1660
09:19
We can show the video here.
228
547782
2539
09:22
Actually, two out of three people in the world
229
550321
1480
09:23
don't have good Internet access now.
230
551801
2386
09:26
We actually think this can really help people
231
554187
2906
09:29
sort of cost-efficiently.
232
557093
2057
09:31
CR: It's a balloon.
LP: Yeah, get access to the Internet.
LP: Yeah, get access to the Internet.
233
559150
3371
09:34
CR: And why does this balloon give you access
234
562521
2143
09:36
to the Internet?
235
564664
1213
09:37
Because there was some interesting things
236
565877
1215
09:39
you had to do to figure out how
237
567092
1834
09:40
to make balloons possible,
238
568926
2131
09:43
they didn't have to be tethered.
239
571057
1749
09:44
LP: Yeah, and this is a good example of innovation.
240
572806
2081
09:46
Like, we've been thinking about this idea
241
574887
2544
09:49
for five years or more
242
577431
1772
09:51
before we started working on it,
243
579203
1601
09:52
but it was just really,
244
580804
1319
09:54
how do we get access points up high, cheaply?
245
582123
3520
09:57
You normally have to use satellites
246
585643
1792
09:59
and it takes a long time to launch them.
247
587435
2939
10:02
But you saw there how easy it is to launch a balloon
248
590374
2494
10:04
and get it up,
249
592868
1519
10:06
and actually again, it's the power of the Internet,
250
594387
2001
10:08
I did a search on it,
251
596388
1780
10:10
and I found, 30, 40 years ago,
252
598168
2304
10:12
someone had put up a balloon
253
600472
1889
10:14
and it had gone around the Earth multiple times.
254
602361
2805
10:17
And I thought, why can't we do that today?
255
605166
2835
10:20
And that's how this project got going.
256
608001
2367
10:22
CR: But are you at the mercy of the wind?
257
610368
2330
10:24
LP: Yeah, but it turns out,
258
612698
2122
10:26
we did some weather simulations
259
614820
1493
10:28
which probably hadn't really been done before,
260
616313
2547
10:30
and if you control the altitude of the balloons,
261
618860
2110
10:32
which you can do by pumping air into them
262
620970
2281
10:35
and other ways,
263
623251
1822
10:37
you can actually control roughly where they go,
264
625073
2929
10:40
and so I think we can build a worldwide mesh
265
628002
2205
10:42
of these balloons that can cover the whole planet.
266
630207
3339
10:45
CR: Before I talk about the future and transportation,
267
633546
2242
10:47
where you've been a nerd for a while,
268
635788
1895
10:49
and this fascination you have with transportation
269
637683
2424
10:52
and automated cars and bicycles,
270
640107
2063
10:54
let me talk a bit about what's been the subject here
271
642170
1737
10:55
earlier with Edward Snowden.
272
643907
2443
10:58
It is security and privacy.
273
646350
3106
11:01
You have to have been thinking about that.
274
649456
2340
11:03
LP: Yeah, absolutely.
275
651796
1354
11:05
I saw the picture of Sergey with
Edward Snowden yesterday.
Edward Snowden yesterday.
276
653150
2843
11:07
Some of you may have seen it.
277
655993
2870
11:10
But I think, for me, I guess,
278
658863
3171
11:14
privacy and security are a really important thing.
279
662034
3662
11:17
We think about it in terms of both things,
280
665696
2245
11:19
and I think you can't have privacy without security,
281
667941
2903
11:22
so let me just talk about security first,
282
670844
2371
11:25
because you asked about Snowden and all of that,
283
673215
2596
11:27
and then I'll say a little bit about privacy.
284
675811
2441
11:30
I think for me, it's tremendously disappointing
285
678252
3800
11:34
that the government
286
682052
1439
11:35
secretly did all this stuff and didn't tell us.
287
683491
2330
11:37
I don't think we can have a democracy
288
685821
3303
11:41
if we're having to protect you and our users
289
689124
3430
11:44
from the government
290
692554
1696
11:46
for stuff that we've never had a conversation about.
291
694250
2803
11:49
And I don't mean we have to know
292
697053
1896
11:50
what the particular terrorist attack is they're worried
293
698949
1695
11:52
about protecting us from,
294
700644
1762
11:54
but we do need to know
295
702406
1798
11:56
what the parameters of it is,
296
704204
2410
11:58
what kind of surveillance the government's
297
706614
2044
12:00
going to do and how and why,
298
708658
2168
12:02
and I think we haven't had that conversation.
299
710826
2277
12:05
So I think the government's actually done
300
713103
2567
12:07
itself a tremendous disservice
301
715670
2168
12:09
by doing all that in secret.
302
717838
2161
12:11
CR: Never coming to Google
303
719999
1615
12:13
to ask for anything.
304
721614
1525
12:15
LP: Not Google, but the public.
305
723139
2030
12:17
I think we need to
have a debate about that,
have a debate about that,
306
725169
3773
12:20
or we can't have a functioning democracy.
307
728942
2499
12:23
It's just not possible.
308
731441
1406
12:24
So I'm sad that Google's
309
732847
2244
12:27
in the position of protecting you and our users
310
735091
2616
12:29
from the government
311
737707
1534
12:31
doing secret thing that nobody knows about.
312
739241
2244
12:33
It doesn't make any sense.
313
741485
1747
12:35
CR: Yeah. And then there's a privacy side of it.
314
743232
2990
12:38
LP: Yes. The privacy side,
315
746222
2427
12:40
I think it's -- the world is changing.
316
748649
1969
12:42
You carry a phone. It knows where you are.
317
750618
3905
12:46
There's so much more information about you,
318
754523
3085
12:49
and that's an important thing,
319
757608
2846
12:52
and it makes sense why people are asking
320
760454
2272
12:54
difficult questions.
321
762726
2036
12:56
We spend a lot of time thinking about this
322
764762
3367
13:00
and what the issues are.
323
768129
2711
13:02
I'm a little bit --
324
770840
1729
13:04
I think the main thing that we need to do
325
772569
1260
13:05
is just provide people choice,
326
773829
2362
13:08
show them what data's being collected --
327
776191
2512
13:10
search history, location data.
328
778703
4751
13:15
We're excited about incognito mode in Chrome,
329
783454
2772
13:18
and doing that in more ways,
330
786226
2249
13:20
just giving people more choice
331
788475
1396
13:21
and more awareness of what's going on.
332
789871
3293
13:25
I also think it's very easy.
333
793164
2393
13:27
What I'm worried is that we throw out
334
795557
1277
13:28
the baby with the bathwater.
335
796834
2090
13:30
And I look at, on your show, actually,
336
798924
2914
13:33
I kind of lost my voice,
337
801838
1719
13:35
and I haven't gotten it back.
338
803557
1331
13:36
I'm hoping that by talking to you
339
804888
1644
13:38
I'm going to get it back.
340
806532
1653
13:40
CR: If I could do anything, I would do that.
341
808185
1732
13:41
LP: All right. So get out your voodoo doll
342
809917
2180
13:44
and whatever you need to do.
343
812097
2419
13:46
But I think, you know what, I look at that,
344
814516
2328
13:48
I made that public,
345
816844
1830
13:50
and I got all this information.
346
818674
1217
13:51
We got a survey done on medical conditions
347
819891
2729
13:54
with people who have similar issues,
348
822620
3371
13:57
and I look at medical records, and I say,
349
825991
4741
14:02
wouldn't it be amazing
350
830732
1405
14:04
if everyone's medical records were available
351
832137
2050
14:06
anonymously
352
834187
1683
14:07
to research doctors?
353
835870
2636
14:10
And when someone accesses your medical record,
354
838506
3041
14:13
a research doctor,
355
841547
1609
14:15
they could see, you could see which doctor
356
843156
2634
14:17
accessed it and why,
357
845790
1860
14:19
and you could maybe learn about
358
847650
1580
14:21
what conditions you have.
359
849230
1630
14:22
I think if we just did that,
360
850860
1502
14:24
we'd save 100,000 lives this year.
361
852362
2165
14:26
CR: Absolutely. Let me go — (Applause)
362
854527
2948
14:29
LP: So I guess I'm just very worried that
363
857475
2762
14:32
with Internet privacy,
364
860237
1806
14:34
we're doing the same thing we're
doing with medical records,
doing with medical records,
365
862043
2300
14:36
is we're throwing out the baby with the bathwater,
366
864347
2529
14:38
and we're not really thinking
367
866876
1828
14:40
about the tremendous good that can come
368
868704
2210
14:42
from people sharing information
369
870914
2191
14:45
with the right people in the right ways.
370
873105
2577
14:47
CR: And the necessary condition
371
875682
2237
14:49
that people have to have confidence
372
877919
1702
14:51
that their information will not be abused.
373
879621
2455
14:54
LP: Yeah, and I had this problem with my voice stuff.
374
882076
1777
14:55
I was scared to share it.
375
883853
1508
14:57
Sergey encouraged me to do that,
376
885361
1890
14:59
and it was a great thing to do.
377
887251
1827
15:01
CR: And the response has been overwhelming.
378
889078
1734
15:02
LP: Yeah, and people are super positive.
379
890812
1660
15:04
We got thousands and thousands of people
380
892472
2833
15:07
with similar conditions,
381
895305
1288
15:08
which there's no data on today.
382
896593
3028
15:11
So it was a really good thing.
383
899621
1356
15:12
CR: So talking about the future, what is it about you
384
900977
3019
15:15
and transportation systems?
385
903996
3758
15:19
LP: Yeah. I guess I was just frustrated
386
907754
2177
15:21
with this when I was at college in Michigan.
387
909931
2539
15:24
I had to get on the bus and take it
388
912470
1450
15:25
and wait for it.
389
913920
1642
15:27
And it was cold and snowing.
390
915562
2179
15:29
I did some research on how much it cost,
391
917741
2655
15:32
and I just became a bit obsessed
with transportation systems.
with transportation systems.
392
920396
6425
15:38
CR: And that began the idea of an automated car.
393
926821
2370
15:41
LP: Yeah, about 18 years ago I learned about
394
929191
1694
15:42
people working on automated cars,
395
930885
3182
15:46
and I became fascinated by that,
396
934067
1623
15:47
and it takes a while to
get these projects going,
get these projects going,
397
935690
2777
15:50
but I'm super excited about the possibilities of that
398
938467
5097
15:55
improving the world.
399
943564
1668
15:57
There's 20 million people or more injured per year.
400
945232
4526
16:01
It's the leading cause of death
401
949758
1986
16:03
for people under 34 in the U.S.
402
951744
2130
16:05
CR: So you're talking about saving lives.
403
953874
1551
16:07
LP: Yeah, and also saving space
404
955425
2355
16:09
and making life better.
405
957780
3915
16:13
Los Angeles is half parking lots and roads,
406
961695
4245
16:17
half of the area,
407
965940
1733
16:19
and most cities are not far behind, actually.
408
967673
2827
16:22
It's just crazy
409
970500
1564
16:24
that that's what we use our space for.
410
972064
1593
16:25
CR: And how soon will we be there?
411
973657
2343
16:28
LP: I think we can be there very, very soon.
412
976000
1926
16:29
We've driven well over 100,000 miles
413
977926
3501
16:33
now totally automated.
414
981427
4093
16:37
I'm super excited about getting that out quickly.
415
985520
3652
16:41
CR: But it's not only you're
talking about automated cars.
talking about automated cars.
416
989172
2405
16:43
You also have this idea for bicycles.
417
991577
2386
16:45
LP: Well at Google, we got this idea
418
993963
2246
16:48
that we should just provide free bikes to everyone,
419
996209
3451
16:51
and that's been amazing, most of the trips.
420
999660
2768
16:54
You see bikes going everywhere,
421
1002428
1586
16:56
and the bikes wear out.
422
1004014
1566
16:57
They're getting used 24 hours a day.
423
1005580
1454
16:59
CR: But you want to put them above the street, too.
424
1007034
2160
17:01
LP: Well I said, how do we get people
425
1009194
1575
17:02
using bikes more?
426
1010769
1527
17:04
CR: We may have a video here.
427
1012296
1625
17:05
LP: Yeah, let's show the video.
428
1013921
1278
17:07
I just got excited about this.
429
1015199
3092
17:10
(Music)
430
1018291
4042
17:16
So this is actually how you might separate
431
1024213
2425
17:18
bikes from cars with minimal cost.
432
1026638
3629
17:26
Anyway, it looks totally crazy,
433
1034711
1755
17:28
but I was actually thinking about our campus,
434
1036466
2327
17:30
working with the Zippies and stuff,
435
1038793
2060
17:32
and just trying to get a lot more bike usage,
436
1040853
2298
17:35
and I was thinking about,
437
1043151
1548
17:36
how do you cost-effectively separate
438
1044699
2831
17:39
the bikes from traffic?
439
1047530
1414
17:40
And I went and searched,
440
1048944
1150
17:42
and this is what I found.
441
1050094
1371
17:43
And we're not actually working on this,
442
1051465
1845
17:45
that particular thing,
443
1053310
1292
17:46
but it gets your imagination going.
444
1054602
2054
17:48
CR: Let me close with this.
445
1056656
1764
17:50
Give me a sense of the philosophy
of your own mind.
of your own mind.
446
1058420
2345
17:52
You have this idea of [Google X].
447
1060765
2488
17:55
You don't simply want
448
1063253
2996
17:58
to go in some small, measurable arena of progress.
449
1066249
5596
18:03
LP: Yeah, I think
450
1071845
1713
18:05
many of the things we just
talked about are like that,
talked about are like that,
451
1073558
2131
18:07
where they're really --
452
1075689
2952
18:10
I almost use the economic concept of additionality,
453
1078641
3630
18:14
which means that you're doing something
454
1082271
2190
18:16
that wouldn't happen unless
you were actually doing it.
you were actually doing it.
455
1084461
2948
18:19
And I think the more you can do things like that,
456
1087409
3140
18:22
the bigger impact you have,
457
1090549
2071
18:24
and that's about doing things
458
1092620
2990
18:27
that people might not think are possible.
459
1095610
3607
18:31
And I've been amazed,
460
1099217
1829
18:33
the more I learn about technology,
461
1101046
2229
18:35
the more I realize I don't know,
462
1103275
2196
18:37
and that's because this technological horizon,
463
1105471
3337
18:40
the thing that you can see to do next,
464
1108808
2897
18:43
the more you learn about technology,
465
1111705
1840
18:45
the more you learn what's possible.
466
1113545
2602
18:48
You learn that the balloons are possible
467
1116147
2246
18:50
because there's some material
that will work for them.
that will work for them.
468
1118393
2337
18:52
CR: What's interesting about
you too, though, for me,
you too, though, for me,
469
1120730
2379
18:55
is that, we have lots of people
470
1123109
1711
18:56
who are thinking about the future,
471
1124820
2142
18:58
and they are going and looking
and they're coming back,
and they're coming back,
472
1126962
3268
19:02
but we never see the implementation.
473
1130230
2127
19:04
I think of somebody you knew
474
1132357
1605
19:05
and read about, Tesla.
475
1133962
2907
19:08
The principle of that for you is what?
476
1136869
3804
19:12
LP: Well, I think invention is not enough.
477
1140673
1785
19:14
If you invent something,
478
1142458
1221
19:15
Tesla invented electric power that we use,
479
1143679
3195
19:18
but he struggled to get it out to people.
480
1146874
2661
19:21
That had to be done by other people.
481
1149535
1684
19:23
It took a long time.
482
1151219
1626
19:24
And I think if we can actually combine both things,
483
1152845
3867
19:28
where we have an innovation and invention focus,
484
1156712
3531
19:32
plus the ability to really -- a company
485
1160243
2972
19:35
that can really commercialize things
486
1163215
1998
19:37
and get them to people
487
1165213
1630
19:38
in a way that's positive for the world
488
1166843
2075
19:40
and to give people hope.
489
1168918
2056
19:42
You know, I'm amazed with the Loon Project
490
1170974
2774
19:45
just how excited people were about that,
491
1173748
2786
19:48
because it gave them hope
492
1176534
1814
19:50
for the two thirds of the world
493
1178348
1621
19:51
that doesn't have Internet right now that's any good.
494
1179969
2726
19:54
CR: Which is a second thing about corporations.
495
1182695
2122
19:56
You are one of those people who believe
496
1184817
2476
19:59
that corporations are an agent of change
497
1187293
2317
20:01
if they are run well.
498
1189610
1471
20:03
LP: Yeah. I'm really dismayed
499
1191081
1821
20:04
most people think companies are basically evil.
500
1192902
3294
20:08
They get a bad rap.
501
1196196
1766
20:09
And I think that's somewhat correct.
502
1197962
2241
20:12
Companies are doing the same incremental thing
503
1200203
2870
20:15
that they did 50 years ago
504
1203073
1763
20:16
or 20 years ago.
505
1204836
1631
20:18
That's not really what we need.
506
1206467
1370
20:19
We need, especially in technology,
507
1207837
2218
20:22
we need revolutionary change,
508
1210055
2117
20:24
not incremental change.
509
1212172
1413
20:25
CR: You once said, actually,
510
1213585
1169
20:26
as I think I've got this about right,
511
1214754
1818
20:28
that you might consider,
512
1216572
1645
20:30
rather than giving your money,
513
1218217
1753
20:31
if you were leaving it to some cause,
514
1219970
3320
20:35
just simply giving it to Elon Musk,
515
1223290
2006
20:37
because you had confidence
516
1225296
1163
20:38
that he would change the future,
517
1226459
1842
20:40
and that you would therefore —
518
1228301
1777
20:42
LP: Yeah, if you want to go Mars,
519
1230078
1584
20:43
he wants to go to Mars,
520
1231662
1721
20:45
to back up humanity,
521
1233383
1971
20:47
that's a worthy goal, but it's a company,
522
1235354
1672
20:49
and it's philanthropical.
523
1237026
2555
20:51
So I think we aim to do kind of similar things.
524
1239581
2952
20:54
And I think, you ask, we have a lot of employees
525
1242533
2987
20:57
at Google who have become pretty wealthy.
526
1245520
3315
21:00
People make a lot of money in technology.
527
1248835
2520
21:03
A lot of people in the room are pretty wealthy.
528
1251355
2156
21:05
You're working because you
want to change the world.
want to change the world.
529
1253511
2314
21:07
You want to make it better.
530
1255825
1762
21:09
Why isn't the company that you work for
531
1257587
3445
21:13
worthy not just of your time
532
1261032
1943
21:14
but your money as well?
533
1262975
2151
21:17
I mean, but we don't have a concept of that.
534
1265126
1722
21:18
That's not how we think about companies,
535
1266848
2304
21:21
and I think it's sad,
536
1269152
1467
21:22
because companies are most of our effort.
537
1270619
3767
21:26
They're where most of people's time is,
538
1274386
2515
21:28
where a lot of the money is,
539
1276901
1854
21:30
and so I think I'd like for us to help out
540
1278755
2352
21:33
more than we are.
541
1281107
1126
21:34
CR: When I close conversations with lots of people,
542
1282233
1721
21:35
I always ask this question:
543
1283954
1779
21:37
What state of mind,
544
1285733
1515
21:39
what quality of mind is it
545
1287248
1809
21:41
that has served you best?
546
1289057
1767
21:42
People like Rupert Murdoch have said curiosity,
547
1290824
2521
21:45
and other people in the media have said that.
548
1293345
2628
21:47
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have said focus.
549
1295973
3024
21:50
What quality of mind,
550
1298997
1427
21:52
as I leave this audience,
551
1300424
1374
21:53
has enabled you to think about the future
552
1301798
3530
21:57
and at the same time
553
1305328
1647
21:58
change the present?
554
1306975
2205
22:01
LP: You know, I think the most important thing --
555
1309180
1670
22:02
I looked at lots of companies
556
1310850
1612
22:04
and why I thought they don't succeed over time.
557
1312462
3303
22:07
We've had a more rapid turnover of companies.
558
1315765
2833
22:10
And I said, what did they fundamentally do wrong?
559
1318598
2769
22:13
What did those companies all do wrong?
560
1321367
2167
22:15
And usually it's just that they missed the future.
561
1323534
3272
22:18
And so I think, for me,
562
1326806
2444
22:21
I just try to focus on that and say,
563
1329250
2424
22:23
what is that future really going to be
564
1331674
2184
22:25
and how do we create it,
565
1333858
1787
22:27
and how do we cause our organization,
566
1335645
4667
22:32
to really focus on that
567
1340312
2440
22:34
and drive that at a really high rate?
568
1342752
3325
22:38
And so that's been curiosity,
569
1346077
1360
22:39
it's been looking at things
570
1347437
1733
22:41
people might not think about,
571
1349170
1718
22:42
working on things that no one else is working on,
572
1350888
3105
22:45
because that's where the additionality really is,
573
1353993
3306
22:49
and be willing to do that,
574
1357299
1551
22:50
to take that risk.
575
1358850
1382
22:52
Look at Android.
576
1360232
1065
22:53
I felt guilty about working on Android
577
1361297
2785
22:56
when it was starting.
578
1364082
1316
22:57
It was a little startup we bought.
579
1365398
1958
22:59
It wasn't really what we were really working on.
580
1367356
2670
23:02
And I felt guilty about spending time on that.
581
1370026
2495
23:04
That was stupid.
582
1372521
1454
23:05
That was the future, right?
583
1373975
1051
23:07
That was a good thing to be working on.
584
1375026
2285
23:09
CR: It is great to see you here.
585
1377311
1417
23:10
It's great to hear from you,
586
1378728
1460
23:12
and a pleasure to sit at this table with you.
587
1380188
2297
23:14
Thanks, Larry.
588
1382485
928
23:15
LP: Thank you.
589
1383413
2103
23:17
(Applause)
590
1385516
3932
23:21
CR: Larry Page.
591
1389448
3311
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Larry Page - CEO of GoogleLarry Page is the CEO and cofounder of Google, making him one of the ruling minds of the web.
Why you should listen
Larry Page and Sergey Brin met in grad school at Stanford in the mid-'90s, and in 1996 started working on a search technology based on a new idea: that relevant results come from context. Their technology analyzed the number of times a given website was linked to by other sites — assuming that the more links, the more relevant the site — and ranked sites accordingly. In 1998, they opened Google in a garage-office in Menlo Park. In 1999 their software left beta and started its steady rise to web domination.
Beyond the company's ubiquitous search, including AdSense/AdWords, Google Maps, Google Earth and the mighty Gmail. In 2011, Page stepped back into his original role of chief executive officer. He now leads Google with high aims and big thinking, and finds time to devote to his projects like Google X, the idea lab for the out-there experiments that keep Google pushing the limits.
Larry Page | Speaker | TED.com