Google Brain

Google Brain
Commercial? Yes
Type of project Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Location Mountain View, California

Google Brain is a deep learning research project at Google.

History

Stanford University professor Andrew Ng who, since around 2006, became interested in using deep learning techniques to crack the problem of artificial intelligence, started a deep learning project in 2011 as one of the Google X projects. He then joined with Google Fellow Jeff Dean to develop "the Google brain" as it was first referred to.[1]

In June 2012, the New York Times reported that a cluster of 16,000 computers dedicated to mimicking some aspects of human brain activity had successfully trained itself to recognize a cat based on 10 million digital images taken from YouTube videos.[1] The story was also covered by National Public Radio[2] and SmartPlanet.[3]

In March 2013, Google hired Geoffrey Hinton, a leading researcher in the deep learning field, and acquired the company DNNResearch Inc. headed by Hinton. Hinton said that he would be dividing his future time between his university research and his work at Google.[4]

On 26 January 2014, multiple news outlets stated that Google had purchased DeepMind Technologies for an undisclosed amount. Analysts later announced that the company was purchased for £400 Million ($650M USD / €486M), although later reports estimated the acquisition was valued at over £500 Million.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The acquisition reportedly took place after Facebook ended negotiations with DeepMind Technologies in 2013, which resulted in no agreement or purchase of the company.[12] Google has yet to comment or make an official announcement on this acquisition.

In December 2012, futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near, joined Google in a full-time engineering director role, but focusing on the deep learning project.[13] It was reported that Kurzweil would have "unlimited resources" to pursue his vision at Google.[14][15][16][17] However, he is leading his own team, which is independent of Google Brain.

In Google products

The project's technology is currently used in the Android Operating System's speech recognition system[18] and photosearch for Google+.[19]

Team

Google Brain was initially established by Google Fellow Jeff Dean and visiting Stanford professor Andrew Ng[20] (Ng since moved to lead the artificial intelligence group at Baidu[21]). As of 2014, team members included Jeff Dean, Geoffrey Hinton, Greg Corrado, Quoc Le,[22] Ilya Sutskever, Alex Krizhevsky, Samy Bengio, and Vincent Vanhoucke.

Reception

Google Brain has received in-depth coverage in Wired Magazine,[6][16][23] the New York Times,[23] Technology Review,[5][17] National Public Radio,[2] and Big Think.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Markoff, John (June 25, 2012). "How Many Computers to Identify a Cat? 16,000". New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "A Massive Google Network Learns To Identify — Cats". National Public Radio. June 26, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  3. ↑ Shin, Laura (June 26, 2012). "Google brain simulator teaches itself to recognize cats". SmartPlanet. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ "U of T neural networks start-up acquired by Google" (Press release). Toronto, ON. 12 March 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Regalado, Antonio (January 29, 2014). "Is Google Cornering the Market on Deep Learning? A cutting-edge corner of science is being wooed by Silicon Valley, to the dismay of some academics.". Technology Review. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wohlsen, Marcus (January 27, 2014). "Google’s Grand Plan to Make Your Brain Irrelevant". Wired Magazine. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Google Acquires UK AI startup Deepmind". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "Report of Acquisition, TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Oreskovic, Alexei. "Reuters Report". Reuters. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "Google Acquires Artificial Intelligence Start-Up DeepMind". The Verge. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "Google acquires AI pioneer DeepMind Technologies". Ars Technica. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "Google beats Facebook for Acquisition of DeepMind Technologies". Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  13. ↑ Taylor, Colleen (December 14, 2012). "Ray Kurzweil Joins Google In Full-Time Engineering Director Role; Will Focus On Machine Learning, Language Processing". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  14. ↑ Empson, Rip (January 3, 2013). "Imagining The Future: Ray Kurzweil Has "Unlimited Resources" For AI, Language Research At Google". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  15. ↑ Ferenstein, Gregory (January 6, 2013). "Google’s New Director Of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, Is Building Your ‘Cybernetic Friend’". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Levy, Steven (April 25, 2013). "How Ray Kurzweil Will Help Google Make the Ultimate AI Brain". Wired Magazine. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Hof, Robert (April 23, 2013). "Deep Learning: With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time. Artificial intelligence is finally getting smart.". Technology Review. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Speech Recognition and Deep Learning". Google Research Blog. Google. August 6, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Improving Photo Search: A Step Across the Semantic Gap". Google Research Blog. Google. June 12, 2013.
  20. ↑ Jeff Dean and Andrew Ng (26 June 2012). "Using large-scale brain simulations for machine learning and A.I.". Official Google Blog. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  21. ↑ "Ex-Google Brain head Andrew Ng to lead Baidu's artificial intelligence drive". South China Morning Post.
  22. ↑ "Quoc Le - Behind the Scenes". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Hernandez, Daniela (May 7, 2013). "The Man Behind the Google Brain: Andrew Ng and the Quest for the New AI". Wired Magazine. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Ray Kurzweil and the Brains Behind the Google Brain". Big Think. December 8, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2014.