Ruth Porat, Google’s president and chief investment officer, expressed optimism regarding artificial intelligence's trajectory at the Coins2Day Global Forum, informing attendees in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that “we are all privileged to live at this time in history” due to the potential AI offers—a transformation she characterized as “so much more than a chatbot.”
TL;DR
- Google President Ruth Porat believes AI could cure cancer within our lifetime.
- AI's potential extends beyond chatbots, transforming health, science, and economies globally.
- Advancements like AlphaFold accelerate drug discovery and disease diagnosis significantly.
- Unlocking AI's economic benefits requires substantial investment in energy and skilled labor.
Porat, speaking with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment, Khalid Al-Falih and Barclays Group CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan, presented a broad outlook on AI's economic, social, and scientific capabilities, noting the many Nobel laureates she has the privilege of collaborating with at Alphabet. She characterized artificial intelligence as more than just a technological leap; rather, she sees it as a powerful agent of change, poised to redefine sectors, fuel economic expansion, and accelerate human advancement significantly.
Porat stated that “people are playing” with AI via chatbots, and that it's “great, because that gets you on the journey. But then the question is: what does it mean for my country? What does it mean for my business?”. She contended that the extent to which “we’re already living” through major advancements in health and science is not fully recognized.
Could AI cure cancer?
Porat cited advancements in healthcare as evidence of AI's wider potential. She emphasized DeepMind’s AlphaFold, a tool that creates 3D models of protein structures, remarking that it's been called “the greatest contribution to drug discovery in our lifetime.” This open-source initiative has seen use by millions of researchers across over 190 nations, speeding up investigations into illnesses once deemed unsolvable.
She also said significant work is being done on early diagnosis of diseases. “We all know early diagnosis can be the difference between survival or not or how difficult the course of treatment is.” In cancer, for instance, that comes in seeing metastatic cells early enough to treat the disease before it spreads. This is very much the proverbial “finding the needle in the haystack,” she said, likening its application to cybersecurity and finding malicious code.
“We should be able to cure cancer in our lifetime,” Porat asserted, calling AI a key driver of scientific discovery. She spoke of early cancer detection, AI-powered cybersecurity defenses that identify threats before they occur, and productivity gains that free workers “from the administrative tasks that take us away from what matters most.”
Maintaining a balance between swift action and accountability
Porat and Venkatakrishnan both discussed how the moment demands urgency from governments and businesses alike. “Every head of state I meet,” Porat explained, “wants to be part of this digital transformation.” She pointed to staggering potential economic benefits, noting that estimates show AI could unlock a $200 billion GDP boost for Saudi Arabia and “trillions globally.” But unlocking that value, she argued, will require serious investment in both energy and infrastructure.
She stated that, in the U.S. Alone, updating the power grid could yield 100 gigawatts of surplus capacity, a quantity backed up by independent research. This power, she explained, is essentially idle; “waiting to be connected.” Porat pointed out that a shortage of skilled labor in blue-collar professions, particularly electricians, represents another obstacle, a sentiment shared by Other Coins2Day 500 executives like Ford CEO Jim Farley. Google, she mentioned, is funding electrician training programs as part of its employment strategies, recognizing that technological advancements are only meaningful if communities equip their workers to engage with them. “There are jobs that come in trades as well as the outside across business.”
Venkatakrishnan spoke about the “huge amount of investment, hundreds of billions if not trillions happening all over the world.” He indirectly admitted conversations regarding a possible AI infrastructure bubble, stating that “in all large capital-investment cycles, there will be some misallocation, some misinvestment. It’s always true. And I think that’s important for people to guard against.” He contended that, regardless of whether demand is 1x or 5x a given forecast, investing in infrastructure—and by extension, the workers who construct and maintain it—is a prudent decision. Venkatakrishnan further noted that significant capital cycles necessitate dependable partners and “who are there for the long term and who will help you through the teething troubles.”
Her message echoed themes of inclusion and global partnership that ran throughout the panel, particularly as Saudi Arabia positions itself as a regional hub for digital infrastructure and AI investment. Al-Falih emphasized his country’s long-term strategy of building supply chain resilience and energy capacity to power the digital economy of the future.
Porat concluded by encouraging leaders to deeply examine and rethink what can be achieved within their respective companies. She stated that the technology's capacity for transformation extends beyond mere productivity gains, aiming instead to enhance human ingenuity and meaning.