According to Eric Schmidt, the co-founder of organizations like Schmidt Futures and a former CEO of Google, we are vastly underestimating the transformative impact artificial intelligence will have. In a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Schmidt declared “I hate to tell you, but I think this stuff is underhyped. Not overhyped, because the arrival of intelligence of a non-human form is really a big deal for the world.”

Schmidt explained that advanced AI capabilities are arriving much sooner than previously predicted, with the most powerful systems just 5 years away instead of 20 years as once thought. He cited the scaling laws that allow AI models to rapidly increase in capability without losing performance. Major tech giants like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others are pouring billions into developing ever-larger language models.

“The big winner right now is still NVIDIA,” Schmidt noted, referring to the chipmaker’s dominance in providing the hardware and software stack to run these massive AI models. However, he believes competition from AMD, Intel and others is vital.

When asked about the implications for companies like Google that have profited from the “blue link economy” of search advertising, Schmidt was bullish.

“Google is not about blue links, it’s about organizing the world’s information. What better tool than the arrival of AI to do that better?” he said, arguing AI can make advertising more effective unless you think advertising itself will disappear.

Perhaps most striking were Schmidt’s comments on AI’s potential to solve major challenges like climate change and cancer.

“I’m beyond excited to cure cancer, to solve climate change,” he began. “All of the things that bedevil us as humans, we’ll make progress on. We can solve these things with the right tools and the right attitude and the right regulations.”

At the same time, Schmidt acknowledged emerging risks around AI-driven disinformation and manipulation.

“The information presented to you may be generated by something, not a human, and they may be fooling you. As a society, we will adapt to that,” he declared.

Overall, Schmidt painted a vision of AI as a transformative force for human society and business — one that is arriving rapidly and has been underestimated in its potential impact, for better or worse. “American businesses will change because of this…You’re seeing the future of reasoning, the future of human interaction, the future of research, the future of planning is being invented right now.”

Featured image: Credit: CNBC