Exploring the wild progress and future of AI at Google with Sundar Pichai

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for Google. From the launch of Gemini 3 to the viral success of Nano Banana Pro, the company’s AI division seems to be firing on all cylinders. To give us a peek behind the curtain, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sat down with Logan Kilpatrick for a special episode of the Google AI: Release Notes podcast.

The conversation is a fascinating look at the strategy, the frantic pace of development, and what Pichai sees as the next big frontier after AI.

The “AI First” bet from 2016

Pichai framed this current moment of rapid-fire releases not as a sudden sprint, but as the payoff of a decade-long marathon. He pointed back to 2016 as the pivotal year when he pushed for Google to become an “AI-first” company.

“It was clear to me in 2016… that we are about to go through another platform shift,” Pichai said. That year saw the launch of the first TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) and the formation of Google Brain’s early breakthroughs. It was a “full stack bet” on infrastructure, research, and products that is only now fully coming to fruition with Gemini 3.

“When you work on products there’s nothing more exciting than that… but I think it’s based on a foundation over many many years,” he noted. “I was just reflecting in the last couple of weeks. I think we’ve pretty much been shipping something every day and so it’s a great feeling”.

On Vibe Coding and creativity

One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was Pichai’s take on how these tools are democratizing creativity and coding. He mentioned the rise of vibe coding—where non-engineers use AI to build working software just by describing it.

He shared a story about a member of his comms team who doesn’t code but used Gemini 3 to “one-shot” an animated HTML page to teach his son Spanish conjugation. “It empowers me like I feel like I’ve actually become more creative in like the way I think about the world because of these tools,” Pichai said. “People are going to express themselves and we giving them the tools to do it the way they’re thinking it in their head”.

The next big bet: Quantum Computing

So, what comes after AI? Pichai is already looking ahead to the next decade, and his eyes are set firmly on quantum computing.

“I think in about 5 years we’ll be having breathless excitement about quantum hopefully like we are having with AI today,” he predicted. Just like the AI investments from 2016 are paying off now, he views quantum as the next long-term bet that will eventually hit a massive inflection point.

He also touched on other “moonshots” like Project Suncatcher (data centers in space) and robotics, showing that while AI is the focus now, Google is still very much in the business of future-gazing.

It’s a candid and optimistic interview that gives a lot of context to the flurry of news we’ve seen from Google lately. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcast platform.