Eric Schmidt sees advances in genetics but no Alphabet breakup - CNET

Eric Schmidt believes that dramatic advances in the health and technology will change the world in the near future.

The executive chairman of Alphabet, Google's parent company, said that he expects technology will improve gene sequencing and make health care more efficient and personalized as the medical industry becomes more digitized.

"There's tremendous optimism around this next generation of scientists and thinkers," Schmidt said at Bloomberg's Breakaway conference Wednesday in New York. "There are problems that bedeviled us for centuries that can in fact be solved."

Schmidt also believes that while it's the job of Google and Alphabet to develop these kinds of solutions, govement should play a role in accelerating developments.

"Let me observe that the govement spends an enormous amount of money on the wrong things," he said. "I would just like to have a little bit of it on these things which are moonshots, enormous-scale things that can benefit the country."

On the topic of Alphabet, Schmidt revealed that the company's CEOs are called "characters," and when asked when he thought it might be prudent to break up the company, he answered: "Never."