Sundar Pichai Explains Why Trump's Photo Comes Up When You Google 'Idiot', And It's Hilarious

Last night, Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared in front of a bunch of US lawmakers to answer some "tough" questions on the search engine giant's handling of user data and expansion plans in China.

Hilariously enough, one of many questions asked to Sundar Pichai was why US President Donald Trump's photo appears whenever someone Googles the word 'idiot'.

Reuters

Yes, this actually happened. A sitting US Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai why pictures of Donald Trump pop up every time someone Googles for the word 'idiot'. This prompted Pichai to go into a technical explanation of how Google search indexes webpages, including pictures, and ranks them against popular keywords based on algorithms, with absolutely no human intervention.

Unconvinced by this explanation, Lofgren asked, "So it's not some little man sitting behind the curtain figuring out what we're going to show the users?"

Google search

Sundar Pichai had to stifle a smile, and others around him had to do the same, before he responded in the negative. Little men sitting behind curtains manipulating Google search results isn't how Google functions, Pichai explained.

It got worse...

If you thought that was the height of ignorance displayed by the US Congress as they supposedly "grilled down" Google CEO Sundar Pichai, keep reading below.

reuters

US Congressman Steve King wanted to know how a mean picture of him ended up appearing on his seven-year-old granddaughter's iPhone. "How does that show up an iPhone," he went on to ask Sundar Pichai.

The Google CEO's response? "Sir, the iPhone is made by a different company." King then said it might have been an Android or a hand-me-down of some kind. Wait, what?! He didn't show it, but I'm sure Pichai was laughing deep down inside, not believing the questions he was being asked.

reuters

Another US Congressman Steve Cohen wanted to know how despite giving four recent interviews to MSNBC, why those interviews weren't ranking right at top when he was searching for his name. Here Sundar Pichai did smile before replying that news is ranked and highlighted in a neutral way.

This is hilarious and also worrisome

Of course, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wasn't at all grilled during his public testimony by the US Congress, and partly because the aging lawmakers probably didn't understand how the Internet functions. No one expects them to be technically savvy about every tiny details of how Internet companies work, but to not have next to know understanding of how giants like Google and Facebook operate is disconcerting.

When a vast swath of Congress doesn't understand how computers work, we need a younger Congress. https://t.co/hHUT7iKHEM

¡ª Matt Post (@mattlpost) December 11, 2018

While Google denied starting a China-only search engine, vowed to abide by all US legal requirements in any such project in the future, but that was about it. Apart from Trump photos and Congress' lackadaisical attitude, Sundar Pichai faced very little heat during his time in front of the US lawmakers.