AI Paradigm-Changing AlphaGo
Developer DeepMind Founder
Rises as Google's New Face
Challenge to Catch Up with ChatGPT
Demis Hassabis CEO / Photo by Google DeepMind
Google has put Demis Hassabis (pictured), known as the 'father of AlphaGo,' at the forefront to reclaim its dominance in artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is to catch up with OpenAI, which has become the absolute leader in generative AI with the support of Microsoft (MS).
On the 14th (local time), US economic broadcaster CNBC reported that Hassabis is scheduled to take the stage at Google's annual developer conference (I/O) starting that day to personally announce Google's upgraded AI capabilities, highlighting that Hassabis is emerging as the 'face of Google.'
Hassabis is the founder of DeepMind, the developer of the Go AI program AlphaGo. He is famous for changing the paradigm of AI by winning against professional Go players at a time when AI was emphasized as an assistant tool for simple human tasks. Since Google integrated DeepMind with its internal AI organization 'Brain' in April last year, Hassabis has been active as the head of Google DeepMind. Google established ties with DeepMind when it acquired the company for $500 million in May 2014.
Google faces the challenge of reinventing itself as a leader in the generative AI field. Although Google has its own developed model, Gemini, it has been consistently found to provide incorrect answers, leading to evaluations that its performance in data learning significantly lags behind OpenAI's ChatGPT. Since generative AI is even expected to potentially replace the online search service market, which Google overwhelmingly dominates, receiving a 'middling report card' is a particularly painful issue for Google.
Among market participants, attention is focused on the fact that Hassabis will appear on the I/O stage for the first time amid the industry's ecosystem being reshaped by AI. This year's Google I/O is a very important event where Google must present groundbreaking AI strategies to gain investor trust. Hassabis stepping forward as Google's representative face indicates the high expectations Google has for him.
Hassabis drew attention on the 8th by unveiling the AI model 'AlphaFold3,' which designs drugs to help more effective disease treatment. He expressed confidence in Google's AI technology by stating that drugs designed by AI could be administered to patients within the next few years. In an interview with CNBC, Hassabis said, "We are like the engine room of the company."
Although Hassabis is an authority in AI research, his name is not often mentioned on Wall Street. Regarding this, CNBC predicted, "It won't take long for Hassabis to become well-known on Wall Street." This is because, having achieved significant innovations in AI over the past decade, he is expected to solve the challenge of applying the latest AI technologies across all areas of Google.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
