Google is buying DeepMind, a UK based artificial intelligence startup, in a deal that is believed to be in the $400 million to $500 million range making it Mountain View’s largest European acquisition till date.
Google has shown a lot of interest in artificial intelligence in the recent past and is working on interesting products like robots and self-driving cars. DeepMind is expected to work closely with the team that is working on this project of Google.
Based out of London, DeepMind was founded by Demis Hassabis, Jaan Tallin and Shane Legg in 2012. According to the report of Re/code, Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures have invested in DeepMind.
DeepMind has been keeping low profile and very little is known about the company except for the information on company’s website that says that its purpose is to develop algorithms that would support e-commerce, simulation and gaming. DeepMind’s founders aim at developing a program that would think more like humans.
“DeepMind is a cutting edge artificial intelligence company. We combine the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms”, reads a statement on DeepMind’s one page website.
It is reported that Larry Page, Google’s CEO was leading the deal and that the company has agreed to setup an ethics board to ensure that the artificial intelligence technology developed by DeepMind is not abused in any way.
[Source: The Information]
