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Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

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Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#61
post #45

The DeepMind website [1] links to cofounder Demis Hassabis' biography on Wikipedia [2]. Read it. This guy is a world-class hacker! [1] http://deepmind.com [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis

That's a nice c.v., but he definitely wrote his own wikipedia article.

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#63
post #2

$400M for a company I've never heard before is quite surprising. Could someone who participates in the machine learning community share any insights or facts they have on the company? Other than the founders' histories, the article doesn't do much justice to the pricetag.

Google should buy Wolfram Research. Wolfram Alpha seems to be pretty decent functionality.

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#65
post #45

The DeepMind website [1] links to cofounder Demis Hassabis' biography on Wikipedia [2]. Read it. This guy is a world-class hacker! [1] http://deepmind.com [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis

That's a nice c.v., but he definitely wrote his own wikipedia article.

I'm usually skeptical of these kinds of vanity articles (and seeing many more lately), but this one kind of checks out [1]. It's got edits by many different IP addresses and handles stretching across nine years.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demis_Hassabis&dir...

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#66
So, Google's list so far:

- Some top ML talent: Geoffrey Hinton, Sebastian Thrun, Peter Norvig, Jeff Dean, Andrew Ng.

- One of D-Wave's quantum computers to establish their 'Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab'.

- Creepy robot maker Boston Dynamics.

- A stack of other robotics companies: Schaft.inc, Industrial Perception, Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Molomni, Bot & Dolly, Autofuss.

- DeepMind, obviously.

Am I missing any?

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#67

I can't believe that they would pay $400M for a company without getting something more than just talent. They must have created something very impressive that will be able to plug into the Borg.

look how much facebook paid for instagram.

If instagram decided to create a couple of features more.. that would be a real threat to facebook as the #1 social network..

With a lot of money to spend.. this was a good move.

Acquisitions can also serve to kill the competition

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#68
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand the objective of those like Kurzweil. What do they see as the benefit of the singularity? Wouldn't a drastically more advanced intelligence just dwarf and dissolve any lesser intelligence that tried to meld with it? It would be complete ego death.

At best, a copy of you living in VR gets to live until the sun explodes. Which at least is better defined than "heaven".

Well, when you scratch the surface, it's not really any better defined than heaven. You're gonna have to spec out 'copy', 'you' and 'living'.

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#69
post #2

$400M for a company I've never heard before is quite surprising. Could someone who participates in the machine learning community share any insights or facts they have on the company? Other than the founders' histories, the article doesn't do much justice to the pricetag.

No facts about the company's work, but Yann LeCun says 3 of his former students + postdocs work at this company:

https://www.facebook.com/yann.lecun/posts/10151812982157143?...

If they're hiring his students, they probably have a high level of talent (speaking as a former -- and present, starting tomorrow -- student).

Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M

#70
post #35

I can't believe that they would pay $400M for a company without getting something more than just talent. They must have created something very impressive that will be able to plug into the Borg.

Better deal than $3 billion for a company that makes thermostats.

State of the art ML + thermostats ... I smell synergy ...
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