Schmidt, chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said that limits on the H-1B visas restrict tech companies from hiring the best talent from around the world; increases costs; and lowers government’s tax earnings.
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphbet Inc., the parent company of Google, said on Wednesday that limits on H-1B visas are harmful for businesses and the government. “The single stupidest policy in entire America was the limit on H-1B visas,” Schmidt said, while speaking at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). “So, I want to say to you right now: we want the best people in the world … We want them and we want them work for us; and not our competitors.”
The former CEO of Google Inc., Schmidt said that at Alphabet they want to hire the best people in the world regardless of race, language or country. He said that the government policies that restrict free movement of highly skilled workers are injudicious. When CSAIL’s Director Daniela Rus asked him on issues surrounding the H-1B program, Schmidt said, “The stupid government policies that restrict us from getting those [best] people, and getting a fair chance of employing them, are antithetical to our mission, the things we serve. And also it causes our earnings to be lower and we pay fewer taxes.”
Google makes people smarter. Next leap is “from Search to Suggest.”
Schmidt said that Google is working to make people smarter. He said that more and more people should be connected through internet. “I think that we are still fundamentally in the – get everyone wired, and make everybody smarter, map,” Schmidt said. “If you think about Google today, Google makes you smarter.” He hinted that AI is the next step forward. He asked the audience: “Wouldn’t you rather have it [technology] anticipate your needs . . . to actually help you?”
He said that it will be like a thing, not a person, kind of a personal assistant or administrative professional that would help people to make better choices. It is like something explaining a person her day’s choices; and then suggesting her what should be done on priority. “So, I’d like a system that has good judgement; which could help me focus my time,” he said.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not hamper job prospects.
Underscoring the future of AI, Schmidt said that Google is training a major chunk of its engineers in AI. He said that we are in the age of rapid discoveries and everyday there are new insights. “We have taken more than half of them [engineers] and put them through in sort of fast AI training, learning these models. That’s how crucial it is to our business,” he said.
Schmidt, who completed his PhD in computer science from the California University, said that AI will not push people out of employment. He said that while jobs will be lost, many more would be created in other spheres. Citing an example, he said that self-driving cars will take driving jobs from human; however, on the other hand, it will create many more in other spheres, for instance logistics. “This time is not different that while there is a tremendous dislocations in jobs, I am not denying that, in aggregate, there will be more jobs,” he said.
Future computer scientists should identify emerging phenomena.
Schmidt, who started programming at the age of 14, said that students should identify the developing areas in technology and run toward them. “You as scientists and future scientists should identify those areas [emerging phenomena] and run at them as hard as you can,” he said. “There is nothing more exciting than the feeling of inventing something new.”
(This story was updated on May 5, 2017)