For a company like Google, with lots of resources, Richard DeVaul’s role was simple: oversee the four innovation classes of leadership – the warrior, the explorer, the builder and the manager. Innovation success relies on a willingness to listen, accept that unexpected outcomes might be discovered as a result, and accommodate radical changes.
DeVaul is driven by the fundamental idea that robots and software can achieve a level of complexity that enables the realization of “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), which will enable a robot to create and make decisions in its own code rather than be guided by man-made codes.
And while the specific mechanisms by which disruption occurs are constantly changing, it remains a central reality of the technological landscape. DeVaul said that disrupting a system with big ambitions is a tough prospect, organizations must think carefully about their innovations.
Super successful innovators make it a habit to have conversations across the entire company about how they feel innovation is affecting their work and how they are feeling about each other. They encourage debate, they value the exchange of ideas, and they want the entire organization to feel open and free to discuss ideas.
Ultimately, these conversations lead to a very powerful discovery: how to successfully merge the energy and excitement of true innovation with the behaviors and structures that are already in place. While DeVaul has great passion for the world of robotics, he was recently appointed Head of AI at Google X after having served as the head in one of leading startups.
Throughout the interview, DeVaul states what he has learned and experienced in his years leading Google’s AI labs, and how he has managed to successfully lead teams and revolutionize businesses from an engineering and development perspective. Richard DeVaul discussed the role of engineering and creativity in innovation, his earlier pursuits and the importance of understanding and serving a larger population.
Richard DeVaul is an American engineer who worked at Google in the past. Richard and his team were responsible for developing Google Earth, Google News, Google Street View, Google Play, Google Cardboard, and Google’s self-driving car. He is one of the first members of the Google Brain Team, a group of experimental and mathematical scientists, data scientists, and more. Go to this page on LinkedIn, for additional information.
Follow him on https://twitter.com/rdevaul?lang=en, for more recent information.