Google's parent company Alphabet is merging its AI research organization 'Brain' with its subsidiary 'DeepMind,' which developed AlphaGo. This move aims to regain AI leadership lost to Microsoft (MS) and OpenAI.
On the 20th (local time), Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, announced on the Google blog, "We will merge the Google Research Brain team and DeepMind into Google DeepMind."
Brain is Google's internal AI research organization. It proposed the Transformer model, which became the backbone of generative AI technology. OpenAI's ChatGPT is also based on the Transformer model. DeepMind is the company that developed the Go AI AlphaGo. Google acquired it in 2014 for $500 million.
The merged DeepMind will be led by Demis Hassabis, former CEO of DeepMind. Jeff Dean, who previously oversaw Google Research, will serve as the chief scientist at the merged DeepMind. Demis Hassabis will lead the overall AI system development, while Jeff Dean will handle the necessary technical projects.
Google is combining the two research organizations to compete against MS. MS partnered with the US AI startup OpenAI and quickly took the lead in AI. In response, Google DeepMind is expected to accelerate the commercialization of technology.
The two organizations have already embarked on a joint project called 'Gemini.' The industry views this new project as a response after Google's 'Bard,' launched as a rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT, failed to make a significant impact.
CEO Pichai said, "The pace of AI development has accelerated more than ever," adding, "Combining all talent into one focused team supported by Google's computing resources will greatly accelerate AI progress."
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