At a time when AI is reshaping the jobs landscape, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he believes the most important lessons in life have little to do with technology and everything to do with optimism, pursuing difficult challenges, and following personal passions.
Delivering the commencement address to Stanford University’s Class of 2026, Pichai spoke about how most important life lessons are “technology agnostic” and, instead, centred on personal choices and values. His speech also avoided focusing on AI, joking that people had advised him not to talk about it.
A few months ago, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was criticised and when he spoke about AI and automation during his commencement speech at the University of Arizona. While Pichai steered clear of AI, it did not stop several students from walking out on his speech in protest of Google technology aiding Israel’s military and intelligence programmes, under Project Nimbus, that have harmed Palestinians. A video from the event shows students filing out of the venue while chanting ‘Free Palestine’.
In his speech, Pichai recounted interviewing at Google on Gmail launch day, shared a behind-the-scenes story about Chrome’s difficult beginnings, and linked his upbringing in India to his technology mission. Here are the five most noteworthy highlights from the Google chief’s second-ever commencement address.
Pichai recounted his childhood in and the challenges his family faced despite a comfortable upbringing. “I grew up in the vibrant city of Chennai, India. It was a comfortable life for the most part, but in those early years we had some challenges. We worried about severe drought and whether the water trucks would arrive in time. And for us technology came slowly. We had to wait years to get a telephone, a tv, a refrigerator. Each changed our lives in meaningful ways,” he said.
“My parents never let the constraints limit my imagination of what was possible; it’s the reason I even let myself dream I could one day work in a far away place called Silicon Valley. When the call from Stanford came, my father spent the equivalent of a year’s salary to buy my ticket. It was my first time on a plane,” Pichai added.
“When I landed in California, it wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. I remember that first drive down 280 coming from the airport with my host family. If you’re not from here, California is advertised as being really lush and green. But when I looked out the window, it was more…brown. I guess I said this out loud, I’m not sure why. My host, Mrs. Jane Earl, gently corrected me. “We prefer to call it golden,” she said,” Pichai said.
Urging the graduates to be more optimistic, Pichai said, “It’s easy to look at the news of the day and think that we’re living in uniquely challenging times. For me, it’s helpful to remember that each generation has faced hardship in their own way. We don’t get to choose the world we graduate into; but we do get to choose how we frame our circumstances.”
“I remember feeling uncertain on graduation day: The sense that life was a series of really big moments, and the pressure I felt to get them all exactly right [..] While these things matter in the moment, they are much less consequential than you might think. You could have failed that biology test, skipped a class, never learned to play the tuba. And you’d still probably be here today,” Pichai said.
Pichai went on to narrate an interesting story about how he and his classmate named Pat skipped class at Stanford University to go to Las Vegas and gamble. “One Wednesday morning in January, my first winter quarter, we were on our way to class. He was like, “Do you want to go to Vegas instead?” I had never skipped a class […] Nine hours from when we set out, we arrived in Vegas with the night lights on the horizon. I didn’t know what to think. Pat taught me how to play blackjack. I started with five dollars and did manage to win about fifteen more, and was like, “I’m out!” We didn’t have enough money to stay long so the next day we started the drive back,” he said.
“No one seemed to notice that we had missed class. For the first time, I realized the world won’t end if I relaxed a little,” Pichai added.
“A couple years into the job, I got my chance to work on a seemingly impossible problem, too. It was around this time that the internet was moving into a new phase. The web was evolving from simple web pages to rich applications. There was a group of us that felt we could reimagine the browser to be much better and faster, and we had an early prototype that we thought was pretty good,” Pichai said.
“And in 2008, we launched what we thought was a great browser. We had eight million users in the first twenty-four hours, and the reviews were really positive. And then user growth stagnated. We kept going, setting highly aggressive stretch goals to keep the team pushing. We rapidly iterated, shipping the browser every six weeks while others shipped one maybe every six months to a year. Success began to follow.” he said.
“When all else is equal, do the thing that excites you. It’s why I took the offer at Google. And why I jumped at the chance to work on projects like Chromebooks and Android later on. Several years ago, I remember meeting a group of women in rural India using Android smartphones for the first time to learn new trades and speak with loved ones far away,” Pichai said.
“So as you look at your own path, don’t focus on: The thing your parents want you to do, Or the thing all your friends are doing, Or that society expects of you. Instead, think about the things that keep you chatting excitedly with your roommates late into the night. And go do those things,” he added.
