The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Google DeepMind

Google snaps up DeepMind for $500m as part of artificial intelligence drive

Author

By John Glenday, Reporter

January 27, 2014 | 1 min read

Google has splashed out in excess of $500m on the acquisition of DeepMind, an artificial intelligence firm, the latest play by a technology firm for the nascent sector.

The deep-pocketed tech titan outbid Facebook to acquire the London based start-up following moves by the social network to establish its own artificial intelligence lab. Companies are expressing growing interest in the field of ‘deep learning’ following strides made by IBM with its Watson supercomputer.

DeepMind was founded by neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, Skype and Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin, and researcher Shane Legg, all three of whom may now join the futurist Ray Kurzweil to develop a more advanced search engine.

By developing increasingly advanced simulations and algorithms Google hopes that it will one day be able to write software that can think independently of its coders.

Google DeepMind

More from Google

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +