On Wednesday, November 6, the École normale supérieure had the honor of hosting Prabhakar Raghavan, Chief Technologist at Google, for an exceptional lecture on Artificial Intelligence as applied to information and search engines. The lecture was followed by a discussion with Isabelle Ryl, Vice President of AI at PSL University and Director of PRAIRIE (Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute), to address the challenges of digital culture and the societal benefits of AI.
The Salle Dussane was a full house, and Prabhakar Raghavan* discussed recent developments in Google’s search engine and the contributions of artificial intelligence to innovatively meet users’ needs. He also explained how information retrieval on the internet will be transformed by the integration of AI into search engines.
During the discussion, Prabhakar Raghavan and Isabelle Ryl addressed the current challenges of Artificial Intelligence: How does generative AI complicate the quality of information? What level of shared digital literacy is needed for AI to benefit society as a whole?
Artificial intelligence is a key research focus at the École normale supérieure and a significant component of the training provided to students, spanning departments such as mathematics, computer science, physics, cognitive sciences, and humanities.
*Prabhakar Raghavan has led the team responsible for some of the most significant advancements in the Google search engine over the past 20 years, including AI Overviews and Google Lens. Under his leadership, his team launched Google’s first generative AI experiment with the Gemini application and transformed Google Maps with immersive experiences.