Alphabet merges DeepMind and Google Brain AI research arm, ending long-running internal rivalry between London- and Silicon Valley-based groups seeking to make up for lost ground in generative AI against Microsoft and OpenAI increase.
The reform will put Demis Hassabis, UK head of DeepMind, in charge of an extended group that can claim breakthroughs in the many studies that have turned AI into the industry’s most important new technology since the advent of the internet. .
He also spent nine years working in advanced research areas rarely directly related to running an Internet company before taking a more direct role in developing advanced AI systems that will be central to Google’s future business. I plan to take charge.
The move to more directly focus Alphabet’s cutting-edge research into AI models that apply directly to Google’s Internet business is the first step in Google’s Internet search business since Microsoft launched an unsuccessful challenge 20 years ago. It follows the successful breakout of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has presented the biggest challenge to
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the reforms were to “ensure the bold and responsible development of AI in general” and “make more capable systems safer and more responsible.” It will leave Google with “a unit that helps us build with
DeepMind’s biggest breakthroughs include the AlphaGo system, which defeated Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016, and AlphaFold, a system that predicts protein structure with far-reaching medical implications. .
By contrast, Google Brain, founded to apply the latest advances in neural networks to Google’s business, was an early success in areas such as machine translation and learning to identify images without human supervision. . The researcher also devised a new technique for “understanding” language called Transformers. This has led directly to the so-called large language model race and the rise of services like ChatGPT.
Jeff Dean, a veteran Google engineer who led Google Brain, has a new role as Chief Scientist at Google, as well as Chief Scientist of the Integrated AI Research Division. He will continue to report to Pichai, not Hassebis, who will continue to be the new CEO of Google DeepMind.
More than nine years after the London-based research group was acquired for $500 million, the AI reorganization completes DeepMind’s slow assimilation into Google’s business. DeepMind’s founders fought early on to distance themselves from other research efforts at Google and free them up to pursue research agendas aimed at developing advanced general intelligence.
A few years ago, Google took steps to make DeepMind’s research more practical, moving research on the use of AI in healthcare to Google units and working to apply DeepMind’s research breakthroughs to its own business. launched a team of
In a sign that Alphabet is using DeepMind’s efforts to accelerate its broader AI efforts, and lessening its independence as an independent unit, Alphabet earlier this year announced that DeepMind would become its own company. said it would not treat it as a separate business within its “other betting”. “Split. Instead, the cost of the AI unit is now treated as Alphabet’s general corporate expense, which reflects the company’s role in developing key technologies for the broader group.
