Ask HN: What happened to Larry Page?

47 points by bansheeps 1 year ago | 14 comments

I'm genuinely curious as to what happened to Larry Page.

For context, I work in robotics and have been for ~10 years now. Back in 2013-2015 I accidentally stumbled upon a lecture that Larry gave at Stanford on YouTube and my life changed completely. I dedicated every day since then to work towards building intelligent, autonomous robots and if there's one person that I attribute whatever modicum of success I have today, it is Larry Page.

Coming from a fairly conservative background, I would spend hours tinkering with electronics, programming in weird languages just so that I could imbue some amount of intelligence into robots. Watching Google Zeitgeist talks/interviews with Larry was my main source of motivation.

Throughout all these years I had a meta-goal, of somehow thanking Larry in person. I keep reading stories about how he's retreated to an island in NZ with his family, but I cannot help but think that the current generation of AI is exactly what he was dreaming about and trying to convey and steer Google towards.

I refuse to believe that he's reclusing in some island in NZ and even if he is I'm pretty sure he isn't just watching from the sidelines.

What really happened to him? I'd appreciate any insights, not the standard oh, he's a billionaire and decided to hand over the reigns to a corporate CEO-type and just retreated. I do not believe that Larry Page simply retreated into some bat cave in one of the most exciting eras in modern technological history.

-bansheeps

PS: In the off-chance that Larry sees this/lurks on HN, thank you. You've genuinely changed the trajectory of my life and I cannot thank you enough.

takinola 1 year ago |

> I refuse to believe that he's reclusing in some island in NZ and even if he is I'm pretty sure he isn't just watching from the sidelines.

You don't know anything about him other than some videos and public appearances. He could be doing a myriad of things, including watching from the sidelines. I bring this up not to bash you but to point out a common misconception that we all fall into at times. We don't really know public figures and so a lot of our opinions about them are just projections of our own desires and biases. People you only see in public can be very different (in character or motivation) than you think.

NullHypothesist 1 year ago |

He's had issues with his vocal chords, so this is a potential reason why he hasn't given many (any?) public appearances as of late. Curious to follow, as I've wondered the same thing...

https://www.silicon.co.uk/workspace/google-larry-page-vocal-...

WheelsAtLarge 1 year ago | |

Interesting, we now have the AI tech that can help him with that. I suspect he just finances new projects and has no real need to be in the public eye. Public figures surrender a big chunk of their privacy and mental health in exchange for being in the public eye. It's probably not worth it to him. Techies tend to trend towards being introverts. It would not surprise me if he is one and just wants to be left alone. No one moves to an island that wants to be all over the news.

It's hard to see what else he can do that will match Alphabet. Talk about changing the world, he did it.

bansheeps 1 year ago | |

In an interview from ~2016 I believe he said the continuous damage of his vocal chords had largely been stopped (not cured, AFAIK Hashimoto's does not have a permanent cure) and he said specifically: "this is the worst it will be". I will try to find that interview, I believe it was the one with Charlie Rose.

tejohnso 1 year ago |

> I dedicated every day since then to work towards building intelligent, autonomous robots

Can you share the reason why you do that and how the video inspired you?

sandspar 1 year ago |

Have you written to him directly? If he's out of the public eye then he may receive fewer letters (hundreds per week rather than thousands). There's a chance he may get around to reading yours a few months down the line.

leoh 1 year ago |

Would you be able to share the YouTube video? Sounds amazing!

runjake 1 year ago | |

It is probably this one:

https://youtu.be/1FyhLQOsNac?feature=shared

But it might be this one:

https://youtu.be/1jTDaS2ZPVo?feature=shared

__rito__ 1 year ago |

I would like a link to the video. Thanks.

runjake 1 year ago | |

Links posted here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41435094

csomar 1 year ago |

> In August 2021 it was revealed that Page holds a New Zealand resident's visa and had traveled to the country on a medivac flight from Fiji for his son's treatment in New Zealand. The flight took place on January 12, 2021. Page had been living in Fiji with his family during the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.[125]

> In 2023, the US Virgin Islands tried several times to serve Page a subpoena in the lawsuit over JPMorgan Chase's links to Jeffrey Epstein.[126][127]

> Page has purchased multiple private islands across the Caribbean and South Pacific, including the Hans Lollik Island in 2014, Eustatia Island, Cayo Norte in 2018, and Tavarua in 2020

It seems the government itself has difficulties reaching him.

fancymcpoopoo 1 year ago |

if something is intelligent and autonomous it's not a robot

ilikesheeps 1 year ago |

Why do you want to ban sheeps?