Google boss Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom

The free and open internet is under attack in countries around the world, Google boss Sundar Pichai has warned. 

He says many countries are restricting the flow of information, and the model is often taken for granted.

In an in-depth interview with the BBC, Pichai also addresses controversies around tax, privacy and data.

And he argues artificial intelligence is more profound than fire, electricity or the internet.

Pichai is chief executive of one of the most complex, consequential and rich institutions in history. 

I spoke to him at Google’s HQ in Silicon Valley, for the first of a series of interviews I am doing for the BBC with global figures. 

As boss of both Google and its parent company Alphabet, he is the ultimate leader of companies or products as varied as Waze, FitBit and DeepMind, the artificial intelligence pioneers. At Google alone he oversees Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Photos, the Android operating system and many other products. 

But by far the most familiar is Google Search. It’s even become its own verb: to Google.

Over the past 23 years, Google has probably shaped the mostly free and open internet we have today more than any other company.