Google will be adding another company to their list of recent acquisitions with the purchase of DeepMind Technologies, a London-based outfit that specialises in artificial intelligence.
The original report, by way of website Re/code, claims that Google will be paying $400 million for the company. DeepMind is not very well known outside AI circles but it seems likely that the artificial intelligence company will be used to further Google’s robotics ambitions, whatever those happen to be. Google has thus far been close-mouthed about their purchase and the price paid for the AI company has not yet been confirmed.
However, a report from The Information (via The Verge) claims that Google paid over $500 million for DeepMind, beating out other bidders including Facebook, who were apparently in talks with the AI company last year. The Information report also claims that Google and DeepMind have established an ethics board, at DeepMind’s behest. The board will reportedly decide how Google will (or won’t) be able to use the company’s technology.
Whatever Google is up to, it should prove to be interesting in the days ahead.
Source: Re/code