Google's chairman thinks artificial intelligence will let scientists solve some of the world's "hard problems," like population growth, climate change, human development, and education.

Rapid development in the field of AI means the technology can help scientists understand the links between cause and effect by sifting through vast quantities of information, said Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., the holding company that owns Google.

"AI will play this role to navigate through this and help us."

 It can also aid companies in designing new, personalized systems. In the future, Schmidt would like to see "Eric and Not-Eric," he said at a conference in New York, where "Eric" is the flesh-and-blood Schmidt and"not-Eric is this digital thing that helps me."

Google has been one of the most significant corporate backers of AI. It uses the technology for new businesses, like self-driving cars, and to improve existing ones, such as the Android phone operating system or Google's search engine. But competition is heating up as Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp, International Business Machines Corp., Baidu Inc. and others are also plowing resources into research for the technology.