Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced the merger of two entities with the company to form a separate business unit dedicated to the development of the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs and products.
The new unit, Google Deepmind, was formed by merging the Brain team from Google Research and DeepMind, a London-based AI company Google had purchased in 2014. The newly-formed business unit aims to accelerate the company’s progress in developing AI in a safe and responsible manner.
We’re proud to announce that DeepMind and the Brain team from @Google Research will become a new unit: .
— DeepMind (@DeepMind) April 20, 2023
Together, we'll accelerate progress towards a world where AI can help solve the biggest challenges facing humanity. → https://t.co/2pkooMzUvD
Pichai’s intent behind combining Google’s AI talent into one focused team is to “significantly accelerate our progress in AI.” Jeff Dean, the Chief Scientist to Google Research and Google DeepMind, who will be directly reporting to Pichai, has been tasked with building a series of powerful, multimodal AI models.
"A.I. has the potential of civilizational destruction."
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 15, 2023
— Elon Musk @elonmusk
pic.twitter.com/uphVmAfnoG
Reflecting on Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s take on AI’s potential to destroy civilization, Pichai clarified the intent behind the creation of the AI-focused unit:
“To ensure the bold and responsible development of general AI, we’re creating a unit that will help us build more capable systems more safely and responsibly.”
While it has been revealed that the subsequent AI developments will be used in enhancing Google products, specific details of implementation remain unknown at the time of writing.
Related: Elon Musk reportedly plans AI startup to rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI
A recent survey of 11,004 American citizens revealed major fears of an AI takeover in the workplace.
While 62% of Americans believe AI will have a major impact on workers generally, just 28% believe its use in the workplace will have a major effect on them personally. https://t.co/ExpDNlOsWl pic.twitter.com/biMSX1AUln
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) April 20, 2023
56% of the respondents believed that AI would have a major impact on the U.S. economy while only 13% of participants believed “AI will help more than hurt” American workers.