Sundar Pichai Delivers Stanford Commencement Address, Omits AI from Core Message

Sundar Pichai

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai delivered the commencement address at Stanford University but something ‘unusual’ happened. Given that Google is currently at the centre of the global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, many expected a speech dominated by tech trends. Instead, Pichai intentionally left the words ‘AI’ out of his core message, and even cracking a clever joke about his own name to explain why he was avoiding the topic. “I know today is about giving you all advice. But people have also been giving me a lot of advice on what to say,” Pichai told the graduating class, adding, “Actually, it’s been the same advice, and it’s about what not to say. People thought it would be really difficult for me; it is the last two letters of my last name, after all.” After the laughter subsided, Pichai explained that the topic was ‘truly immaterial’ to what he wanted to share. “The most timeless advice, I’ve learned, is technology agnostic. It’s about you, the life you want to build for yourself, and the choices that help you pursue that life,” he said.

Pichai’s secret to handling pressure

Pichai, who is a Stanford alumnus himself and earned his MS in materials science and engineering there, used the platform to ease the pressure felt by the crowd. He recalled his own graduation day, remembering the anxiety and the false feeling that every single choice had to be exactly right. He let the graduates in on a “little secret”: most everyday decisions are much less important than they seem. “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... and you’d still probably be here today,” Pichai explained. While major life decisions, like picking a life partner or making a massive career pivot, require deep time and intention, thousands of other choices do not. According to Pichai, decisions about your first job or the next city you move to rarely determine the ultimate course of your life. To help the graduates filter out daily anxiety, Pichai shared the three personal principles that took him from a financially strapped student from Chennai, India, to the head of one of the world's most valuable tech companies: choose optimism, work on hard things and do what excites you. Pichai concluded by encouraging the new graduates to focus on the things that keep them excited, and to pursue those passions without fear.