Alphabet Inc announced on Thursday that it will combine Google Brain and DeepMind, two of its leading artificial intelligence (AI) research units, in an effort to further advance its research in the field. The newly combined division will be led by Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, and will focus on developing “bold and responsible” general AI. The teams being merged have already delivered high-profile projects, including the transformer, which has been the basis for some of OpenAI’s own work.
The focus of the new division will be on “multimodal” AI, which is capable of responding not only to text prompts but also to image inputs to generate new content. This is similar to OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4, which has been generating significant interest in the AI community due to its impressive capabilities. The goal of the combined team is to continue advancing AI research, while also ensuring that the technology is developed responsibly.
The move comes as Alphabet seeks to keep up with rivals like OpenAI and Microsoft in the race to develop and commercialize AI technology. In February 2023, Alphabet launched its own AI system, called Bard, to compete with OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot. However, Bard faced criticism after sharing inaccurate information in a promotional video, and its initial launch event failed to impress investors, causing Alphabet to lose $100 billion in value. With the creation of the new division combining Google Brain and DeepMind, Alphabet hopes to further strengthen its position in the highly competitive AI landscape.
About Author
