Can someone shed some light on the reasoning behind paying 3.2 billion for Nest (thermostats) and only 400 million for DeepMind (artificial intelligence). Is it really that Nest was a consumer, revenue positive company?
Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
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Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#162Can someone shed some light on the reasoning behind paying 3.2 billion for Nest (thermostats) and only 400 million for DeepMind (artificial intelligence). Is it really that Nest was a consumer, revenue positive company?
Well, if you keep in mind that Google's game is data collection, it makes sense that a product that will give them an even more detailed look into the life of people will help them monetize that somehow at somepoint. (I have been doing lots of macro level SEO research lately and have come to the conclusion that Google is getting ready to make some big moves in the near future.)
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
The idea is to build a "friendly AI" which doesn't dissolve us.
Does that mean that having "our way" overrides what AI knows is in the best interest of the planet and humanity? Will this AI just lend itself to be used in harmful ways by dubious and invariably less intelligent people?
The trick is to program the AI in the way that it thinks it's in our best interest for it to be friendly. Read up on utility functions.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#164I don't know anyone on the team, but Om Malik was not impressed and he's usually reliable: https://twitter.com/om/status/427653907766972416 > A $400 million talent acquisition with little talent. That's how Google rolls now! There's also word that it was more than $400m, perhaps as high as $500m. That's a lot for talent any way you slice it.
How is he qualified to judge ML talent?
DeepMind wasn't just a 3 man team, Yann Lecun posted on G+ that 3 of his PhD students were on the team and I've heard that they were recruiting more people.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have an assload of cash on hand and the singularity is coming at us like a freight train. I'd think they were drunk if they weren't snatching up everything relevant in sight.
> They have an assload of cash on hand... I wonder if they managed to pay for DeepMind out of funds that are "stuck" offshore (i.e. earnings from outside the US that can't be repatriated without incurring a big tax bill).
I never even considered that, probably very true.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#166Ohhh, did Google buy them? Or did the AI figure that the best place to launch world domination from was inside Google so it forged a letter from Larry and Sergey offering to acquire the company? :-)
I see someone else has read Avogadro Corp ( http://avogadrocorp.com/ ).
I found that book to be one of the most unsettlingly plausible premises for an AI. In particular I liked that it didn't go the typical Hollywood idea of AI as being a "soul/homunculus conjured into a machine" but rather a very effective decision-making agent.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#167Here's a talk the founder gave in 2010 for Singularity U about combining neuroscience and machine learning. http://vimeo.com/17513841
He did mention the theory by Jeff Hawkins only very shortly. I think it is very relevant in this context because he gives high-level theory about how the neocortex works. I can really recommend the book by him, On Intelligence, where he explains it quite understandable. It explains why the brain has developed the different hierarchical layers of the visual system and how the same principle works everywhere in the neo…
Agree! But I'm biased and work for Numenta. Jeff will be glad to hear you liked his book. P.S. Your site is down http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.az2000.de
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#168The question is, what is Google going to do with all these robotics and AI companies? And please no singularity/skynet/robot uprising BS, I'm expecting more from HN than youtube level comments.
Singularity is not BS, and I'm pretty sure they want to make it happen. It would be a shame if Google wanted all this AI talent to improve ad revenue or just for self-driving cars. I for one hope they are not that short-sighted. I think, hope, that with "all these robotics and AI companies", they literally want to build the future of mankind.
Singularity is BS because there's no such thing as "machine surpassing human intelligence". Human intelligence is not a one dimensional measurement that can be "surpassed". There's not much challenge to write AI that surpasses all humans in IQ tests. You can't even say if one human surpassed other human in intelligence, how are you gonna measure machine? In the same way every one of us are intelligent in some specific areas, AIs are and will be intelligent in their own. We, humans, only have many things in common, because we all have the same body, that makes us to have the same physical needs and what results in relatable experiences that we call "common sense". If we, you an I, didn't have same types of bodies, even if we both could speak english, we could barely understand each other. That's why there will never be a point where AI will become "unpredictable". It's just pop culture meme for people that don't want to think it through the details, sitting in the same page with UFO, spirits and other I want to believe crap.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#169Ohhh, did Google buy them? Or did the AI figure that the best place to launch world domination from was inside Google so it forged a letter from Larry and Sergey offering to acquire the company? :-)
I see someone else has read Avogadro Corp ( http://avogadrocorp.com/ ). I found that book to be one of the most unsettlingly plausible premises for an AI. In particular I liked that it didn't go the typical Hollywood idea of AI as being a "soul/homunculus conjured into a machine" but rather a very effective decision-making agent.
Yup, that is an awesome tale.
Re: Google to Buy Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind for $400M
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
At best, a copy of you living in VR gets to live until the sun explodes. Which at least is better defined than "heaven".
and does it matter? I mean, since it's a copy, to your biological "you", it's just no different as if they put some other random person in VR and told you it was you in there. I find the 'upload your brain to a hard drive' thing silly unless they figure out how to have your biological consciousness seamlessly move to the VR, like it was taking some bus ride and ended up in this new place.
In the old mans war books they cover that by having the old and new bodies staring at each other while they move the consciousness. So one minute you're staring at a new body then you're staring at both then gradually the vision of the new body fades out and you're left staring at your old body.
I think something similar is the only way you're going to get people to want to do this. Though whether or not that is possible is way beyond me.