James is Senior Vice President at Google-Alphabet reporting to the CEO. He leads Research, Technology & Society, including overseeing Google Labs and Google Research – awesome teams doing cutting-edge foundational and applied work in AI, Computing and Science, and in areas that have potential for broad beneficial impact on people society all in support of Google’s mission, responsibly.

In a recent interview with Times as one of the TIME100 Most Influential People in AI, James Manyika shared his desires to see tech every community, across the globe.

“Throughout my career and all the different things I’ve done, there’s been a bit of a through line of, on the one hand, how do we harness the possibilities of technology to benefit people everywhere, from East Palo Alto to Zimbabwe—but at the same time, be thoughtful about the impact on society of these technologies?” Manyika says in a phone interview.

James M. Manyika is a Zimbabwean-American academic, consultant, and business executive. He is known for his research and scholarship into the intersection of technology and the economy, including artificial intelligence, robotics automation, and the future of work. Wikipedia

Prior to Google, he spent over 25 years at McKinsey & Company, including serving on its board, and is now senior partner emeritus and chair emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). He was appointed by President Obama to serve as vice chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, and by two US commerce secretaries to the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board. He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Hewlett and MacArthur foundations.

As Google’s SVP of Research, Technology & Society, James oversees Google Research and leads efforts across Google and Alphabet to responsibly shape and advance our most ambitious innovations to benefit people and society.

“We believe our approach to AI must be both bold and responsible. To us that means developing AI in a way that maximizes the positive benefits to society while addressing the challenges, guided by our AI Principles. While there is natural tension between the two, we believe it’s possible — and in fact critical — to embrace that tension productively. The only way to be truly bold in the long-term is to be responsible from the start.” writes James in one of his latest blogs

Why we focus on AI (and to what end)

An extract from – James Manyika, Jeff Dean, Demis Hassabis, Marian Croak and Sundar Pichai blog.

‘It is an exciting time in the development of AI. Our approach to developing and harnessing the potential of AI is grounded in our founding mission — to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful — and it is shaped by our commitment to improve the lives of as many people as possible. It is our view that AI is now, and more than ever, critical to delivering on that mission and commitment.’

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