Microsoft-backed ChatGPT opened the doors wide open. Now others are rushing in.

Alphabet. Apple. Amazon. Meta.

Big Tech is pledging hundreds of billions on generative AI. Data centres. Chips. Building, training, deploying genAI models. 

Peeyush Ranjan, VP of Engineering, is helming Google’s answer – Gemini (formerly Bard).  

Ranjan is an old hand at building tech for billions. He’s held stints at Airbnb. Flipkart. More, his 15 years at Google are testament to deploying next-gen software into society – Search. YouTube. Android. Workspace. And thus far Google’s pinnacle in Indian society: GPay. While many credit PhonePe for supercharging India’s digital financial revolution, Ranjan believes that it was GooglePay that first shattered the access barrier for Indians living in small towns and villages. “I will posit that Gpay (Tez, in its earlier avatar) broke the UPI curve for Indians,” he says.

His mantra? First, aligning technology with functionality. Seeing human problems as technical problems means focusing on the tech stack. Wireframe. Interface. Simple. Smart. Intelligent. Rajan’s goal is tech that can be used by anyone from anywhere in the world, or as he calls it, “deep tech, wide usage”. 

On the other hand, Rajan’s keen on aligning applications and attitudes. Silicon Valley can perfect the tech all it wants, but will it work out in the real world? Ranjan studies user behaviour closely – the ‘culture’ as he dubs it. While all of us deal with money, we all work around it differently, he says. Local nuances come into play. Credit cards are coveted in the US, he says, but frowned upon in Germany. The way you pay your bills in Boston is different from Bangalore. 

If engineers master cultural context, tech could be built beautifully. Will Google’s Assistant, now AI empowered, see this ethos embedded in its creation? And how would it shift the needle? 

As a global tech giant, Google faces fire on several fronts. Monopoly over search traffic. Advancing cloud computing, AI, and other tech to Israel as it bombards Gaza. Capitalist misdeeds — underpaid and overworked contractors. It has also brought billions online.   

Will the race for AI give Google a new innings? At SYNAPSE, Peeyush Ranjan, the Silicon Valley insider from Bihar’s Muzzafarpur, will unpack Google’s approach to tech. Its impact in India. The latest Silicon Vally lab race. And whether he sees any turbulence ahead as AI turbocharges tech.