Google has acquired artificial-intelligence company DeepMind Technologies Ltd. The tech website Recode reported that Google paid $400 million for the startup based in London. DeepMind describes itself as a “cutting edge artificial intelligence company. They combine the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms. The company was founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are key areas of research for the search giant. On its website, Google says it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence in its work on language, speech and translation. It isn’t clear if the researchers from DeepMind will be working with Google in these areas.
This is Google’s fourth acquisition this month. It was announced on January 4th that Google acquired an Android development company called Bitspin. This was followed by the $3.2 billion acquisition of smart thermostat company, Nest Labs, on January 13th. Two days later, Google acquired a software security company called Impermium.
Re/code reports that Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures are both major investors in the startup. Deepmind was started about three years ago, according to LinkedIn profiles.
In 2012, Carnegie Mellon professor Larry Wasserman wrote that the “startup is trying to build a system that thinks. This was the original dream of AI. As Shane [Legg] explained to me, there has been huge progress in both neuroscience and ML and their goal is to bring these things together. I thought it sounded crazy until he told me the list of famous billionaires who have invested in the company.”
SOURCEs- Techcrunch, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Re/Code
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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