Jeff Dean, Head of Artificial Intelligence at Google LLC, speaking at the Google AI event in San Francisco, California, USA, Tuesday, January 28, 2020.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Alphabet is about to integrate DeepMind with Google’s internal research team called Brain. This is meant to bring his two artificial intelligence-focused groups closer together as the AI battle heats up.
Google acquired DeepMind for a reported $500 million in 2014 and has until now operated as an independent division outside the UK of the Chinese board game Go.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post on Thursday:
Jeff Dean, who currently leads Google’s AI efforts, has been promoted and given the title of Chief Scientist at Google, reporting directly to Pichai. He will lead the “most important and strategic” technical projects related to AI, the first of which will be a series of powerful multimodal AI models.
The move marks Google’s latest reorganization to keep up with the rapid development of AI after OpenAI launched its chatbot ChatGPT late last year. CNBC previously reported that Google reorganized its assistant organization to prioritize its AI chatbot Bard.
“The pace of progress has never been faster,” Pichai wrote. “To ensure the bold and responsible development of AI in general, we are creating a unit that will help us build better systems more safely and responsibly.”
DeepMind can now operate independently from Google’s core research, allowing it to rapidly work on breakthroughs such as AlphaFold, which can predict 3D models of protein structures. His two divisions, DeepMind and Google Research, have also reportedly had strained relations in the past, with DeepMind seeking greater independence.
DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will lead the development of “the most capable and responsible general-purpose AI system,” Pichai said. His research “will help us enhance our next generation of products and services,” he added.
Brain, a Google Research team merged with DeepMind, focuses on AI and machine learning. Pichai said Google Research will continue work in areas such as algorithms and theory, privacy and security, quantum computing, health and responsible AI.
In addition to the blog post, Pichai sent a lengthy memo to staff about the changes.
James Manyika, Google’s senior vice president of technology and social, will oversee Google Research alongside the existing team, Pichai said. Manyika will report to Dean and the change will take place over the next few weeks, the memo says.
Here is the text of the memo obtained by CNBC:
Hey, guys,
Since 2016, we are an Al-first company because we consider Al to be the most important vehicle.
fulfill our mission. Since then, we have used Al to improve many of our core products.
Search, YouTube, and Gmail are great cameras for your Pixel phone.we have supported companies
Developers are harnessing the power of AI via Google Cloud, showing the potential of Al.
Address social issues such as health and climate change.
We were fortunate to have two world-class research teams lead the way along the way.
Advance the industry with fundamental breakthroughs that ushered in a new era of Al.
The pace of progress is faster than ever.To ensure bold and responsible people
General al development, creating units to help build stronger systems
Safer and Responsible.
The group, called Google DeepMind, is part of Google Research (Brain
team) and DeepMind. Bringing all this talent together into one focused team,
Google’s computational resources will greatly accelerate the progress of Al.
As CEO of the new unit, Demis Hassabis will lead the development of the most talented and talented people.
Responsible and General Al Systems — Research Powering the Next Generation
products and services. Jeff Dean will assume the promoted role of Google’s chief scientist.
report to me In that capacity, he will serve as his Google Research and chief his scientist at Google.
deep mind.Jeff helps set the future direction of our Al research and directs our most important work
Strategic technology projects related to Al — the first of which is a series of powerful,
Multimodal Al model.
The move brings together two major research groups in the Al field.their group
Al’s work over the past decade includes AlphaGo, Transformers, word2vec, WaveNet,
AlphaFold, sequence-to-sequence models, distillation, deep reinforcement learning, and
Distributed systems and software frameworks such as TensorFlow and JAX for representation and training
Deploying ML models at scale.
Google DeepMind acts as an agile, fast-paced unit with clear connection points and
Collaboration with Google Research and PA.
With this change, James Manyika will oversee Google Research alongside the existing Google Research.
Tech & Society Team.Many of Research’s technological advances have shaped its core products
It is and will continue to be a feature of Alphabet as a whole.Working closely with Jeff as Chief
As a scientist, Google Research will continue to focus on basic and applied research.
Broad Portfolio.This means seemingly impossible cracking, fundamental and long-term
Computer science challenges including AI and ML benefit lives around the world.
From Algorithms and Theories to Privacy and Security, Quantum Computing, Health,
Responsible Al and others.
Today we are announcing these changes.It will take the next few weeks to get a new team
in place.
Congratulations to Demis, Jeff and James on their new roles and continuation.
collaboration. Google Research and the DeepMind team
We at this inflection point.
I am very much looking forward to moving forward with our mission in the next phase of this journey.
And all the ways to help people reach their potential more and more competently and responsibly.
Al.
thunder
clock: Google opens chatbot Bard to users
