Alphabet brings together the AI-focused groups DeepMind and Google Brain

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Alphabet is merging an internal Google research team called Brain with DeepMind, a move designed to bring two AI-focused groups closer together as the battle for AI heats up.

Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 for a reported $500 million and has until now operated it as an independent unit outside the UK. DeepMind has been one of Alphabet’s “other bets,” doing futuristic jobs, like teaching computer systems to beat high-level players of the Chinese board game Go.

Combining all of this talent into one focused team, backed by Google’s computational resources, will significantly accelerate our advances in AI, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post Thursday.

Jeff Dean, who currently leads Google’s AI efforts, will be promoted and given the title of chief scientist at Google, reporting to Pichai. He will lead the most critical and strategic technical projects related to AI, the first of which will be a series of powerful and multimodal AI models.

The move marks the latest retooling by Google in response to rapid developments in AI, following OpenAI’s launch of the ChatGPT chatbot late last year. CNBC previously reported that Google has shuffled its Assistant organization to prioritize the company’s AI chatbot Bard.

The pace of progress is now faster than ever, wrote Pichai. To ensure the bold and responsible development of general AI, we are creating a unit that will help us build more capable systems in a safer and more responsible way.”

DeepMind was able to operate separately from Google’s basic research, allowing it to move faster to discoveries like AlphaFold, which can predict 3D models of protein structures. The two divisions, DeepMind and Google Research, have also reportedly had tensions in the past, leading DeepMind to seek more independence.

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will lead the development of the most capable and responsible general AI systems, Pichai said. That research, he added, will help fuel the next generation of our products and services.

James Manyika, Google’s senior vice president of technology and enterprise, will now oversee Google Research, along with its existing teams, Pichai said. Manyika will report to Dean and the changes will take place in the coming weeks, the memo says.

The part of Google Research that is merging with DeepMind is Brain, which focuses on AI and machine learning. Pichai said Google Research will continue to work in areas such as algorithms and theory, privacy and security, quantum computing, health and responsible AI.

In addition to the blog post, Pichai sent a longer reminder to staff members about the changes. Here is the text of the memo, obtained by CNBC:

Hi everyone,

We have been a first Al company since 2016 because we view Al as the most meaningful way to achieve our mission. Since then, we’ve used Al to enhance many of our core products, from Search, YouTube and Gmail to the incredible camera on Pixel phones. We’ve helped businesses and developers harness the power of AI through Google Cloud and showcased the potential of AI to address societal issues like health and climate change.

Along the way, we’ve been fortunate to have two world-class research teams driving the entire industry forward with breakthrough discoveries that ushered in a new era of artificial intelligence.

The pace of progress is now faster than ever. To ensure the bold and responsible development of General Al, we are creating a unit that will help us build more capable systems in a safer and more responsible way.

This group, called Google DeepMind, will bring together part of Google Research (the Brainteam) and DeepMind. Combining all of this talent into one focused team, backed by Google’s computational resources, will dramatically accelerate our progress at Al.

As CEO of the new unit, Demis Hassabis will lead the development of our more capable and responsible general Al systems research that will help power the next generation of our products and services. Jeff Dean will assume the exalted role of Chief Scientist at Google, reporting to me. In this capacity he will serve as Chief Scientist for Google Research and GoogleDeepMind. Jeff will help establish the future direction of our aluminum research and direct our most critical and strategic aluminum engineering projects, the first of which will be a series of powerful multi-mode aluminum models.

This move brings together two major research groups in the AI ​​field. Their collective achievements in Al over the past decade include AlphaGo, Transformers, word2vec, WaveNet, AlphaFold, sequence-to-sequence models, distillation, deep reinforcement learning and distributed systems, and software frameworks such as TensorFlow and JAX for expression, the formation and implementation of large-scale ML models.

Google DeepMind will function as an agile and fast unit, with clear points of connection and collaboration with Google Research and the PAs.

With this change, James Manyika will now oversee Google Research alongside his current Tech & Society teams. Many of Research’s technological advances have shaped Alphabet’s core products and capabilities and will continue to do so. Working closely with Jeff as Chief Scientist, Google Research will continue to focus on fundamental and applied research across the overseas portfolio. This means solving seemingly impossible, fundamental and long-term challenges in computing, including Al and ML that benefit people’s lives around the world, from algorithms and theory to privacy and security, quantum computing, health, all ‘Responsible AI and more.

We are announcing these changes today and it will take the next few weeks to settle the new teams.

Please join me in congratulating Demis, Jeff and James on their new roles and continued partnership. The Google Research and DeepMind teams have laid the groundwork that has led us to this inflection point.

I’m so excited about the next phase of this journey, the progress we’ll make on our mission, and all the ways we’ll help people reach their potential with an ever more capable and responsible Al.

Sundar

WATCH: Google opens the Bard chatbot to users

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