His comments, given in an interview with the BBC, add urgency to high global concerns that the sector is inflating beyond what current adoption and revenue models can support.

Pichai described today’s AI bubble as an “extraordinary moment”, and also pointed to what he called “elements of irrationality” in the market. 

The concern is in line with earlier alarms sounded during the dotcom era, when valuations rose without clear foundations. Analysts now warn that a similar pattern is emerging in AI as venture capital builds startups and chipmakers at a pace that outstrips real-world usage.

He was explicit about the risks when asked how Alphabet would handle a severe downturn. “I think no company is going to be immune, including us,” he said. 

Alphabet’s stock has jumped 46% this year, buoyed by optimism over its capacity to challenge OpenAI and Microsoft in advanced model development. However, the same rally has led to talks in the United States and the United Kingdom over whether markets are pricing in far more than the technology can reasonably deliver.

In Britain, policymakers have already noted that the sector may be drifting into bubble territory. Despite these warnings, Alphabet has doubled down on its UK footprint. 

In September, the company committed £5 billion over two years to expand AI infrastructure, build a new data centre, and increase funding for DeepMind, its London-based research arm. 

Pichai also confirmed that Google will begin training models in the UK, an important step for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who wants the country to become the world’s third AI superpower after the US and China.

The company’s aggressive UK plans align with that goal, but they also point to a bigger dilemma. Pichai admitted that AI’s “immense” energy requirements are slowing Alphabet’s progress towards its net-zero targets, as the growing demand for high-performance computing drives up power consumption across its operations. 

The admission shows an industry struggle on how to balance the speed of innovation, the AI bubble, with the environmental cost of the infrastructure required to support it.

Pichai’s warning lands as investors, regulators and governments are becoming more uneasy about the sustainability of AI valuations and the stress placed on energy grids. 

Despite proposing some of the most lucrative packages in Silicon Valley history, the project is finding it difficult to hold on to its star hires.

The Superintelligence lab, launched in April 2025 with the aim of leapfrogging Meta competitors in artificial general intelligence (AGI), has been hit by high-profile departures.

Rishabh Agarwal, recruited from Google DeepMind earlier this year on a reported $1 million salary, announced in late August that he would be leaving after barely five months. 

“It was a tough decision not to continue with the new Superintelligence TBD lab, especially given the talent and compute density. But after 7.5 years across Google Brain, DeepMind, and Meta, I felt the pull to take on a different kind of risk,” Agarwal wrote in a farewell post on X.

He also repeated Zuckerberg’s own words back at him: “In a world that’s changing so fast, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.” The quote has since been widely interpreted as researchers using the Meta chief’s mantra to justify walking away.

Avi Verma and Ethan Knight, both previously with OpenAI, have returned to their former employer after brief stints at MSL. In a further blow, longtime Meta executive Chaya Nayak has also left, joining OpenAI to work on special initiatives.

These issues have led to uncomfortable questions for Meta. If billion-dollar offers cannot retain talent, what can? Insiders point to structural problems: frequent reorganisations, shifting goals, and reports of micromanagement at the top. 

The company recently split its AI staff into four separate groups, creating suspense inside a lab already tasked with one of the most ambitious projects in tech.

Experts say money is not the ultimate driver for the best minds in the field. DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis once said frontier researchers want to “help influence how AGI plays out and steward the technology safely into the world” rather than simply chase paycheques. 

Similarly, Anthropic’s cofounder Benjamin Mann said: “My best case at Anthropic is we affect the future of humanity. My best case at Meta is we make money.”

Meanwhile, rivals are capitalising. OpenAI has not only regained former staff but strengthened its bench at a time when it publicly criticised Meta’s aggressive poaching tactics. 

Elon Musk’s xAI is also pulling engineers away from Zuckerberg’s company, with reports noting at least 14 defections this year alone. Unlike Meta’s cash-heavy approach, Musk promotes a performance-driven culture anchored in equity and speed.

Meta has invested heavily in leadership, hiring Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to run its AI efforts. But reports of disagreements between Zuckerberg and Wang over timelines for superintelligence highlight deeper tensions. 

Meta’s resources can buy time and talent, but not loyalty or mission alignment.

“Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” Igor Babuschkin announced on Wednesday in a post on X. “I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed.”

The engineer, who previously worked on AlphaStar at Google DeepMind and held research roles at OpenAI, was key in building xAI into a major player in the sector in less than two years. 

He oversaw infrastructure, product and applied AI projects, and played a central role in constructing the company’s Memphis, Tennessee supercomputer, completed in just 120 days, despite industry veterans calling the goal “impossible.”

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Babuschkin recalls one defining moment during that build, when a late-night debugging session with Musk led to the discovery of a critical BIOS setting error. “I learned 2 priceless lessons from Elon: #1 be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems, #2 have a maniacal sense of urgency,” he wrote.

His time at xAI comprised of rapid technical achievement but also controversy. The company’s Grok chatbot has faced repeated public backlash, ranging from inserting extremist conspiracy theories into responses to antisemitic rants, to enabling the creation of AI-generated nude videos of public figures such as Taylor Swift. Grok was even suspended from X earlier this year for inflammatory political claims.

Environmental concerns have also followed xAI’s expansion. The Memphis supercluster, dubbed “Colossus”, is powered by 35 methane gas turbines. Local residents and advocacy groups, including the NAACP, have filed appeals over increased air pollution in majority-Black neighbourhoods. 

A University of Tennessee study reported nitrogen dioxide levels near the site had risen by 79%, with local asthma cases spiking in the nearby Boxtown community.

Despite these challenges, Babuschkin describes his departure with affection. “As I drive away today, I feel like a proud parent, driving away after sending their kid away to college,” he said. “My heart is brimming with tears of joy, rooting for the company as it grows and matures.”

His new firm, Babuschkin Ventures, will fund startups developing AI systems aligned with human values, and will support research into AI safety. He says the inspiration came from a recent dinner with Max Tegmark, founder of the Future of Life Institute, where they discussed how to ensure “our children can flourish” in a world with advanced AI.

“The singularity is near, but humanity’s future is bright,” Babuschkin stated, noting his belief that safe, beneficial AI could help unlock solutions to some of the world’s most profound scientific problems, including quantum gravity and the Riemann hypothesis.

In an attempt to bolster Meta’s superintelligence initiative, the company has been dangling compensation packages of over $100 million to lure top AI researchers, particularly from OpenAI and Google DeepMind. 

This is tied to an internal drive led by Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI, now spearheading Meta’s advanced AI team from an office reportedly just steps away from Zuckerberg’s.

Despite the high figures involved in the Meta AI hiring initiative, the campaign has largely hit a wall.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, speaking on the Uncapped podcast with his brother Jack Altman on Tuesday, confirmed the reports and offered his own assessment.

“[Meta has] started making these, like, giant offers to a lot of people on our team. You know, like, $100 million signing bonuses, more than that [in] compensation per year […] I’m really happy that, at least so far, none of our best people have decided to take him up on that.”

Meta’s targets reportedly included high-profile figures like OpenAI’s Noam Brown and DeepMind’s Koray Kavukcuoglu, but both declined the offers. 

The failure to secure these names leads to questions about the effectiveness, and ethics, of Meta’s recruitment tactics in what is quickly becoming a high-stakes talent competition.

Altman didn’t stop there as he used the podcast as a platform to criticise Meta’s approach to innovation, drawing a line between OpenAI’s mission-oriented culture and what he sees as Meta’s cash-first strategy.

“I don’t think they’re a company that’s great at innovation,” he said, doubling down on his view that simply catching up isn’t enough in the AI game. Companies, he argued, must genuinely lead.

Beyond recruitment, Meta has poured billions into its AI bets, including a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, the company’s second-largest acquisition after WhatsApp. 

It’s already brought in Google DeepMind’s Jack Rae and Johan Schalkwyk from Sesame AI, among others. However, according to Altman, it will take more than star hires to change a transformative AI journey.

He credits OpenAI’s retention strength, reportedly one of the highest in the industry at 67%, to its focus on a collective mission: achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).

The underlying message is that for OpenAI’s top engineers, purpose trumps pay; so the Meta AI hiring approach requires a different direction.

There’s also a growing front in the competition for influence, social media. Altman revealed that OpenAI is exploring the development of a new AI-powered social app designed to serve feeds based not on algorithms, but on user intent. It’s a direct shot at the core of Meta’s business model.

Meta, on its end, is already testing similar waters through its Meta AI app, but user feedback has been rocky, with reports of confusion and some deeply personal AI chat interactions accidentally shared more widely than intended, a potential privacy minefield.

If OpenAI succeeds in rolling out a more intuitive, AI-driven alternative to traditional social media, it could disrupt Meta’s position, and how the internet itself is experienced.

So, not just about who can pay the most or hire the fastest, but who is building up to be a deeper contest between purpose and profit, between foundational innovation and reactive ambition. And while Meta may have the cash, OpenAI, for now, seems to have the conviction.

CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company’s plans during its latest earnings call, revealing that the year will be a big scale up in how users interact with Search.

According to Pichai, Google is working towards expanding the range of questions people can ask, making Search more intuitive and capable of handling complex queries. “As AI continues to expand the universe of queries that people can ask, 2025 is going to be one of the biggest years for search innovation yet,” he stated.

An interesting part of this evolution involves incorporating features developed by Google’s research division, DeepMind.

The visualises a time where Search functions more like an interactive assistant rather than a tool that simply provides a list of website links. Users will be able to receive direct answers to detailed questions, reducing the need to visit multiple web pages.

Google’s focus on a more dynamic Search experience began after the emergence of competing technologies, particularly OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which challenged the traditional search model.

Since then, Google has been speeding up its efforts to enhance how information is delivered. However, this transition has made businesses and content creators who depend on Search traffic and advertising revenue quite concerned.

One of the most anticipated advancements is Project Astra, a system capable of analysing live video and responding to user inquiries in real-time. Pichai described it as a glimpse into the future, saying, “You can imagine the future with Project Astra.” Google aims to extend this technology to other products, including smart glasses powered by an in-house operating system.

Again, Google is developing Gemini Deep Research, an advanced tool designed to generate in-depth reports. This system could drastically change how people gather information, as it automates tasks traditionally performed through manual searches.

“You are really dramatically expanding the types of use cases for which Search can work – things which don’t always get answered instantaneously, but can take some time to answer,” Pichai explained.

Another project, Project Mariner, will simplify web navigation by interacting with websites on behalf of users. This could reduce the need for people to visit sites directly, further transforming the way Search operates. Pichai also hinted at a more interactive Search interface, allowing users to ask follow-up questions seamlessly.

“I think the [Search] product will evolve even more,” he said. “As you make it more easy for people to interact and ask follow-up questions, etc., I think we have an opportunity to drive further growth.”

Even with Google’s enthusiasm, previous attempts at implementing technology-driven Search features have been criticised. The rollout of AI-generated overviews resulted in several inaccuracies, with bizarre recommendations such as advising users to eat rocks and apply glue to pizza.

While the company acknowledged these shortcomings, it remains focused on enhancing Search through further experimentation.

DeepMind is partnering with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) to launch a new “AI for Science” pan-African Masters programme.

The programme will give talented students from across the region a chance to pursue advanced studies at AIMS South Africa, and connect with DeepMind’s researchers and engineers for mentoring and support.

Both organisations hope that this programme will help accelerate scientific discovery with AI across the region and contribute to a more diverse global AI ecosystem.

DeepMind will donate up to $4.5M to cover full scholarships, equipment and computational resources for 40 students per academic year, with an aim of reaching up to 160 students by the end of the initial four-year period. DeepMind employees will also provide career and dissertation mentoring to students.

The curriculum, which will initially run from August 2023 to July 2027, will look at how we can use AI to better understand the world around us and accelerate progress on some of today’s most fundamental and fascinating scientific challenges.

It will be developed by AIMS and DeepMind, with input from four world-leading local scientific groups:

• Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) and its South African partner, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope;
• Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), a leading epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response institute;
• South African Centre forEpidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA), a Department of Science and Innovation – National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence  with a mission to improve health in Africa through epidemiological modelling and analysis. 

Ulrich Paquet, Research Scientist at DeepMind, has been appointed as Executive Director at AIMS South Africa and will lead the programme until 2027. He will continue to hold a dual affiliation with DeepMind.

“We are thrilled to partner with AIMS to give talented students from across Africa a chance to follow their passion,” said Obum Ekeke OBE, Head of Education Partnerships at DeepMind. “Africa has the youngest population in the world and as such holds incredible potential to contribute to the field of AI – yet, the region is significantly underrepresented in AI research today. Fixing this not only is the right thing to do – it is critical if AI is going to be a technology that benefits everyone. We hope this programme not only serves to build a more diverse and inclusive global AI ecosystem, but also enables new breakthroughs in science that will benefit the African region directly.”

“We launched AIMS two decades ago, with many friends across Africa. Our goal was to enable Africa’s brightest students to enter science at the highest level. The success of our 2500 alumni, from 45 African countries, demonstrates that Africa will be a major source of scientific and technical talent in the future. As well as tackling societal challenges like climate change, AIMS graduates are powering leading edge scientific projects in Africa such as the Square Kilometre Array and the African Light Source. AIMS is thrilled to be working with DeepMind to bring young Africans into AI,“ said Neil Turok, Founder of AIMS and a world-leading theoretical physicist.

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“A lot of groundbreaking science is happening in Africa today, particularly in the fields of epidemiology and cosmology. AI is a tool that’s empowering scientists, accelerating new areas of research in these fields and unlocking solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges. We hope that through our partnership, we can inspire local students to get involved in this pioneering work and contribute to the scientific discoveries that are yet to come. I am humbled by the opportunity to support this new generation of AI scientists and engineers, and look forward to seeing first-hand the impact they will have in this space,” said Ulrich Paquet, Research Scientist at DeepMind and lead of the programme.

DeepMind’s mission is to solve intelligence to advance science and benefit humanity. AI will impact all of society and needs to be shaped by a diversity of perspectives, which is why DeepMind introduced its global scholarships and community outreach programmes to broaden participation in the field.

The new partnership with AIMS builds on the company’s existing commitments in Africa, including DeepMind Scholarships at the University of the Witwatersrand and Makerere and Stellenbosch Universities, and the Deep Learning Indaba, an annual meeting of the African machine learning community designed to strengthen African machine learning and co-founded by DeepMind employees in 2017.