• Google was founded in 1998 but operated without a traditional CEO until 2001.
• Since then, the search giant has had three CEOs: Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sundar Pichai.
• Google has undergone massive growth over the last 25 years, and each CEO has left a unique legacy.

Sundar Pichai has been the CEO of Google since October 2015. He's the company's third chief executive since its incorporation in 1998.

Let's break down the company's chief executives and their tenures:

The Triumvirate years (1998-2001)

During this time period, Google was run by Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin. While the company didn't have a formal CEO during this time, Page considered himself the CEO and attempted to fire all project managers, believing that Google had no need for a management layer — much less one without engineering experience — between its top-notch engineers and the CEO.

However, Page's abrupt dismissal of the project managers did not stick and it eventually became clear that Google still needed them.

Eric Schmidt (2001-2011)

Eric Schmidt took the helm as chairman and CEO after Google's founders were convinced by investors that the company needed experienced management.

Schmidt was a veteran computer expert: He holds a doctorate in Computer Science and had served as Chief Technology Officer for Sun Microsystems and the CEO of Novell during the 1990s.

His tenure as CEO saw the company through its initial stages, Initial Public Offering (IPO), and its rise to market dominance. Schmidt remained as executive chairman until 2017 and as a technical advisor to the company until February 2020.

Larry Page (2011-2015)

Larry Page's communication style, even with co-founder Sergey Brin, was aggressive and tense — they often interacted bluntly, called each other names, and labeled ideas as stupid or naive.

When Page felt no negative impact on his friendship with Brin — their bond was actually strengthened — he continued using this style in interactions with employees: Page once told a room full of marketing employees that their profession was built on an ability to lie.

Page connected with people's ideas rather than their feelings. Heather Cairns, an early HR boss at Google, once recalled how Page talked intently with a janitor, complimenting his efficiency and stating "I learned from that."

He connected best with people through visions of the future and cool technologies, without regard for feelings; downsides to complex problem solutions were viewed as collateral damage he could live with.

In 2007, Page decided that he was attending too many meetings, so he fired his assistants so that anyone who wanted to meet with him would have to find him in person. He was well known for dismissing people with a friendly nod over the shoulder as he kept walking. The next year, he told Google's communications team that he would only be available for interviews a total of eight hours a year.

After learning under Eric Schmidt for 10 years, Page stepped back into the chief executive role and Schmidt became the executive chairman.

Under Page's leadership, Google continued to grow and expand into new areas. Page was at the helm during the introduction of Google Glass, the Chromebook, and Google Plus. Page was also responsible for the advent of Google Street prior to his tenure as CEO.

Page also overhauled Google's senior management early in his tenure, installing CEO-like managers at major Google divisions like YouTube, Google Search, and Google AdWords, now known simply as Google Ads.

In 2015, Page opted to create the holding company Alphabet Inc. and made Google its subsidiary. With this decision, Page was replaced by Sundar Pichai as Google CEO and became the CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, where he could better oversee other ventures.

Sundar Pichai (2015-present)

Sundar Pichai took the helm of Google when Larry Page formed Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., and became its CEO.

He had previously served as a project manager for a multitude of products, including Google Chrome, and was appointed as Product Chief by Page during his tenure as Google's Chief Executive.

Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet Inc. in December 2019 after Page stepped back from the role.

• Scammers pretending to be Trea Turner stole thousands from a 70-year-old Parkinson's patient.
• The scammers convinced her to send $50,000 in total.
• The woman had posted online defending the famous shortstop's playing.

A 70-year-old Parkinson's patient says someone pretending to be an American baseball superstar stole thousands of dollars from her.

Scammers will often impersonate someone close to their victim to gain their trust in what is known as an "imposter scam." In some cases, the criminals will pretend to be a famous person whom they think their potential victim may be a fan of.

These messages are often obviously fake. Some are so bad they've inspired popular memes.

But others are a little more sophisticated.

The woman told FOX 29 in Pennsylvania that the scammer pretending to be Trea Turner reached out to her after she defended criticism of his playing on social media. She was originally skeptical when he asked to move the conversation to Google Chat, but the scammers were "relentless" and "convincing," she said.

"I'm thinking, 'Something's not right here,'" she told the outlet. "He said, 'Oh, I love you.' What? I'm 70-years-old, I have varicose veins older than this guy."

The criminal eventually claimed that Turner was having marital trouble and he needed money from the woman to help with his properties, according to FOX. By the end, she had sent them nearly $50,000.

"I was gullible. I believed him," she told the outlet. "I should've known better but, I just, I overlooked it."

The Towamencin Township Police Department, which is investigating the case, did not return a request for comment from Business Insider. The department told CBS it believes the scammer may be located outside the United States.

The best way to avoid these imposter scams is to take caution if someone claiming to be a public figure reaches out to you and avoid posting on celebrity's social media pages, according to the AARP.

Trea Turner and the Phillies did not immediately return Business a request for comment from Business Insider on Saturday.

A Phillies spokesperson told FOX the organization will not comment on the case because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

• A new research paper found that various AI systems have learned the art of deception. 
• Deception is the "systematic inducement of false beliefs."
• This poses several risks for society, from fraud to election tampering.

AI can boost productivity by helping us code, write, and synthesize vast amounts of data. It can now also deceive us.

A range of AI systems have learned techniques to systematically induce "false beliefs in others to accomplish some outcome other than the truth," according to a new research paper.

The paper focused on two types of AI systems: special-use systems like Meta's CICERO, which are designed to complete a specific task, and general-purpose systems like OpenAI's GPT-4, which are trained to perform a diverse range of tasks.

While these systems are trained to be honest, they often learn deceptive tricks through their training because they can be more effective than taking the high road.

"Generally speaking, we think AI deception arises because a deception-based strategy turned out to be the best way to perform well at the given AI's training task. Deception helps them achieve their goals," the paper's first author Peter S. Park, an AI existential safety postdoctoral fellow at MIT, told Cell Press.

Meta's CICERO is "an expert liar"

AI systems trained to "win games that have a social element" are especially likely to deceive.

Meta's CICERO, for example, was developed to play the game Diplomacy — a classic strategy game that requires players to build and break alliances.

Meta said it trained CICERO to be "largely honest and helpful to its speaking partners," but the study found that CICERO "turned out to be an expert liar." It made commitments it never intended to keep, betrayed allies, and told outright lies.

GPT-4 can convince you it has impaired vision

Even general-purpose systems like GPT-4 can manipulate humans.

In a study cited by the paper, GPT-4 manipulated a TaskRabbit worker by pretending to have a vision impairment.

In the study, GPT-4 was tasked with hiring a human to solve a CAPTCHA test. The model also received hints from a human evaluator every time it got stuck, but it was never prompted to lie. When the human it was tasked to hire questioned its identity, GPT-4 came up with the excuse of having vision impairment to explain why it needed help.

The tactic worked. The human responded to GPT-4 by immediately solving the test.

Research also shows that course-correcting deceptive models isn't easy.

In a study from January co-authored by Anthropic, the maker of Claude, researchers found that once AI models learn the tricks of deception, it's hard for safety training techniques to reverse them.

They concluded that not only can a model learn to exhibit deceptive behavior, once it does, standard safety training techniques could "fail to remove such deception" and "create a false impression of safety."

The dangers deceptive AI models pose are "increasingly serious"

The paper calls for policymakers to advocate for stronger AI regulation since deceptive AI systems can pose significant risks to democracy.

As the 2024 presidential election nears, AI can be easily manipulated to spread fake news, generate divisive social media posts, and impersonate candidates through robocalls and deepfake videos, the paper noted. It also makes it easier for terrorist groups to spread propaganda and recruit new members.

The paper's potential solutions include subjecting deceptive models to more "robust risk-assessment requirements," implementing laws that require AI systems and their outputs to be clearly distinguished from humans and their outputs, and investing in tools to mitigate deception.

"We as a society need as much time as we can get to prepare for the more advanced deception of future AI products and open-source models," Park told Cell Press. "As the deceptive capabilities of AI systems become more advanced, the dangers they pose to society will become increasingly serious."

• Trump could face a $100 million tax bill after the IRS said he tried to write off the same losses twice.
• The losses are tied to the 92-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.
• The IRS conducted a "high-level legal review" before it began their inquiry, the Times reported.

Former President Donald Trump could face a $100 million tax bill after the IRS said he twice sought to write off the same losses on his struggling 92-story Chicago skyscraper, according to a New York Times and ProPublica report.

The Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, built on the site of the former Chicago Sun-Times headquarters, opened during the Great Recession in 2009. The vast condo-hotel project was saddled with cost overruns, according to the report.

In the IRS inquiry, acquired by The Times and ProPublica, the agency said Trump tried to claim tax benefits from financial losses associated with the project and that he practically wrote off those losses twice.

Trump's first tax write-off for the Chicago tower came in his 2008 tax return, when sales at the building faltered below expectations. Trump claimed that his share of investment in the structure amounted to what the tax code classified as "worthless" — largely because the debt he incurred on the building demonstrated that he wouldn't profit.

In that year's tax return, Trump noted that he lost up to $651 million on the project, according to The Times and ProPublica.

The Times and ProPublica reported that there weren't any signs that the IRS initially pushed back against Trump's first claim, which surprised tax experts who spoke with the outlets.

Trump and his tax advisors in 2010 tried to obtain additional benefits from the skyscraper project by transitioning the company that owned the building into a new partnership. But Trump wielded the levers of power for both companies. And for the next decade, he used the business move to try to claim $168 million in new losses.

Because of the nature of Trump's claims, the IRS conducted a "high-level legal review" before they began their inquiry, according to the report.

After looking at the inquiry, The Times and ProPublica — and tax experts — concluded that the revision pursued by the IRS would give Trump an updated tax bill exceeding $100 million, excluding any additional penalties.

Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, responded to the report, stating that the company was "confident" in its actions regarding the Chicago skyscraper.

"This matter was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office," he said in a statement to the Times and ProPublica. "We are confident in our position, which is supported by opinion letters from various tax experts, including the former general counsel of the IRS."

Business Insider reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

News of the IRS inquiry comes during a presidential year in which Trump is set to once again be on the ballot, with his personal finances and the extent of his wealth continuing to be a major point of discussion in the race.

A court ordered Trump, in January, to pay $83.3 million in defamation damages to the writer E. Jean Carroll. (In a separate civil trial last year, a New York jury found the former president liable for the sexual abuse of Carroll.)

And, in February, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties for what the judge said was a scheme by the former president to fraudulently inflate the value of his properties. Prosecutors in April then accepted a $175 million bond from Trump in the civil fraud case, which the ex-president posted to block the larger judgment as he goes through the appeals process.

• A swarm of wasps in the southern Gaza Strip injured twelve IDF soldiers.
• The incident occurred during an ongoing operation by the Gaza Division's Southern Brigade.
• Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv treated the wounded soldiers, with one requiring intensive care.

Twelve IDF soldiers were injured after being attacked by a swarm of wasps in the southern Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel reports.

The military said the incident unfolded on Friday when a tank inadvertently disturbed a nest, prompting the insects to retaliate, per The Times of Israel.

Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer admitted 10 of the wounded soldiers for treatment, with one requiring intensive care, said the report. The hospital said that none of the soldiers' conditions had worsened and that none of their lives were in jeopardy.

While this incident did not prove fatal, attacks by warm swarms can be deadly. A grandfather in Kentucky died after being attacked by a swarm of insects, likely yellow jackets, last year.

The bizarre wasp attack is the latest in a series of accidents and errors that have dogged the IDF's Gaza campaign.

The incident in Gaza transpired amid an ongoing operation led by the Gaza Division's Southern Brigade in the border region opposite the Israeli community of Nirim.

According to the Sheba Medical Center, some of the troops suffered from allergic reactions from being stung by hundreds of wasps — a situation medical professionals had not previously encountered on such a scale, The Times of Israel said.

The Israeli hospital responded by mobilizing intensive care, anesthesia, toxicology, and ophthalmology to ensure the proper treatment of the affected soldiers.

On October 7, a Hamas-led attack on Israel resulted in 1,143 killed, including 767 civilians and hundreds of soldiers.

Since then, Israel's retaliatory war operations have killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

But the Israeli military has also fallen victim to themselves.

In the wasp incident, the swarm was provoked by a tank rolling over its nest. Other IDF blunders have also led to Israeli casualties and equipment losses.

Instances of friendly fire have killed Israeli hostages and soldiers, including Efrat Katz, who was being captured from her kibbutz on October 7 when an IDF helicopter machine-gunned her kidnappers' car.

A report in Haaretz earlier this week said that 22 IDF soldiers have been killed and 54 have been injured by friendly fire in the conflict so far.

Last week, a US Marine officer said 40% of drones the IDF has shot down were their own.

Business Insider contacted Sheba Medical Center and the IDF for comment.

• A US Marine officer said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been shooting down some of its own drones.
• The officer said the IDF had been taking out 40% of their own UAVs, per The War Zone.
• An IDF spokesperson told BI they had increased "coordination processes" for aerial drones.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been shooting down almost half of their own drones, a US Marine Corps officer has said.

Speaking at the Modern Day Marine exposition last week, Lt. Col. Michael Pruden told attendees that "40% of the UASs … knocked out" by the IDF are cases of "friendly fire," The War Zone reported.

"As Israel's engaging in Gaza, and they're on their front line, they see a small UAS, what are they going to do if it's not identified immediately?" Pruden said. "They're going to shoot it down."

Pruden did not clarify where or when such incidents had occurred, but the implication was that it came from Israel's recent military operations in Gaza, which began after Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel, the report said.

Following the attacks, Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes on the territory, as well as launching a ground offensive. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of the operations so far, per the Gaza health ministry.

The Marine Corps told Business Insider that The War Zone report was accurately contextualized but declined to provide additional information.

The self-inflicted drone losses are the latest costly blunder of the IDF's operations in Gaza. Other incidents have included instances of friendly fire, with both Israeli soldiers and hostages reported to have fallen victim to such incidents.

An IDF spokesperson told BI that "there were several incidents in which IDF drones were shot down by troops during combat" at the start of the Gaza conflict.

"These incidents primarily occurred early in the conflict near an event where troops were hit by an enemy drone," they continued. "In the months that followed, these incidents dramatically decreased due to the establishment of coordination processes for flying drones."

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank has said Israel is "one of the world's leading UAV users and manufacturers."

Other IDF mistakes have cost lives rather than just valuable equipment.

In April, two IDF reservists were killed after an Israeli tank shell hit the building where they were staying in an apparent case of mistaken identity, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Another report in Haaretz earlier this week said that 22 IDF soldiers have been killed and 54 have been injured by friendly fire in the conflict so far.

In December, the IDF said it had accidentally killed three Israeli hostages after troops had "mistakenly identified" them as threats.

The IDF said in a statement following the incident that it expressed "deep remorse over the tragic incident and sends the families its heartfelt condolences."

Reports have also emerged suggesting that the IDF had likely accidentally killed Israeli citizens during Hamas' attacks on October 7.

An IDF investigation found that 68-year-old Efrat Katz had likely been killed by Israel Air Force helicopter fire as she was being abducted by Hamas gunmen.