CHINA TOPIX

11/21/2024 07:17:37 pm

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Google's CEO Larry Page Interested In Housing, Future of Jobs

Google is sitting on $62 billion of cash, and they want to spend it. The company recently invested in Nest Labs for $3.2 billion and has been looking at robotics, space satellites and artificial intelligence startups to gain more ground in those areas.

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Page finds robotics an interesting subject for debate, but more for how artificial intelligence and robots will change the jobs market. Page says 90 percent of all labor jobs currently available will disappear within the next decade or two, replaced by machines that can offer up to ten times the efficiency.

This has already happened in the automotive market. Page is a firm believer that the next generation will not be pushed into unfulfilling jobs. This also ties into his ideas of education reform, bringing more tools and knowledge when it comes to computing.

The housing market is also a topic on which Page has alternative views, claiming it should and will be possible for someone to buy a house in Palo Alto for $50,000, a long shot from the +$500,000 they're going for at the moment. 

Another one of Page's favorite subjects is health care, with Google's own side-project Calico getting hundreds of millions dollars of investment. The plan: make humans immortal and create vaccines for the world's most common diseases.

At Google I/O 2013, Page made the claim that medical records should be made public, saying the only reason they aren't is due to insurance. Even though this idea received a mixed response, it is clear Page sees the growth of the medical industry alongside openness and transparency from governments and people.

The only people who report to Larry Page are Sundar Pichai, head of all of Google's current software services, and some select groups, like Nest Labs and YouTube.

Page has removed himself from the meat of the company by passing much of the day-to-day operations on to Pinchai, to focus on how Google can become more than an ad-selling search giant, by taking some of the most ambitious projects and investing heavily.

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