Google Buys Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $500 Million

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It makes perfect sense that Google would make their latest publicized acquisition. If you have awesome robots, you really need to have artificial intelligence to go along with them don't you? Google just purchased a startup called DeepMind for $500 Million USD. The company specializes in Artificial Intelligence and includes some of the best talent in that industry. Here's a quote with more of the details,

According to The Information, Google paid in excess of $500 for DeepMind, while Re/code puts the figure at $400 million. Regardless of the cost, Google is said to have competed with Facebook for the startup – DeepMind and Facebook were in advanced talks, but the deal fell through late last year.

DEEPMIND ASKED GOOGLE TO ESTABLISH AN AI ETHICS BOARD
One of the conditions that DeepMind raised was for Google to establish an “ethics board” that would ensure that artificial intelligence technology is not abused. It’s not clear whether this board would supervise the use of DeepMind technology or of Google’s AI efforts in general.

The deal was reportedly spearheaded by Google CEO Larry Page himself. If Hassabis and DeepMind’s other talent will work for Google, they will join other AI experts including Anna Patterson and Jeffrey Dean. Futurologist Ray Kurzweil is also working at Google with the stated goal to create a search engine that acts much like a “cybernetic friend”.

We've heard that the two main reasons Google is investing heavily in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics is that they plan to combine their efforts to create an improved transportation infrastructure, and because they want to build a Star Trek-like AI computer. Oh... and we thought they just wanted to test their friendly Skynet theory...

Source: AndroidAuthority