The Verge: A Google DeepMind AI language model is now making descriptions for YouTube Shorts. “Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details on how one of its visual language models (VLM) is being used to generate descriptions for YouTube Shorts, which can help with discoverability.”
Fortune: The Google Brain-DeepMind merger is good for Google. It might not be for us. “At stake is Google’s main revenue and profit-driver—its dominance of internet search—as well as a bunch of other Google product lines, including its Workspace office productivity software and its cloud computing services. But, while merging Brain and DeepMind might be a winning combination for Alphabet, we all might wind up losing.”
CNBC: Read the internal memo Alphabet sent in merging A.I.-focused groups DeepMind and Google Brain. “Alphabet is merging an internal Google Research team called Brain with DeepMind, a move designed to bring two groups focused on artificial intelligence closer together as the battle for AI heats up.”
Engadget: DeepMind created an AI tool that can help generate rough film and stage scripts. “Have you ever thought up an idea for a movie or play that you just know will be a smash hit, but haven’t gotten around to writing the script? Alphabet’s DeepMind has built an AI tool that can help get you started.”
Ars Technica: DeepMind breaks 50-year math record using AI; new record falls a week later. “Matrix multiplication is at the heart of many machine learning breakthroughs, and it just got faster—twice. Last week, DeepMind announced it discovered a more efficient way to perform matrix multiplication, conquering a 50-year-old record. This week, two Austrian researchers at Johannes Kepler University Linz claim they have bested that new record by one step.”
DeepMind: AlphaFold reveals the structure of the protein universe. “In partnership with EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), we’re now releasing predicted structures for nearly all catalogued proteins known to science, which will expand the AlphaFold DB by over 200x – from nearly 1 million structures to over 200 million structures – with the potential to dramatically increase our understanding of biology.”
Smart Energy International: Google and UK Power Networks chart AI-driven electric cable maps. “Google’s DeepMind engineers have partnered with UK Power Networks, which delivers electricity across London, the East and South East, to create digital versions of maps covering more than 180,000km of electricity cables in the UK. The work involves new image recognition software scanning thousands of maps – some of which date back decades – and using artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically remaster them into a digital format for future use.”
Sky News: Google sued for using the NHS data of 1.6 million Britons ‘without their knowledge or consent’. “Google is being sued over its use of confidential medical records belonging to 1.6 million individuals in the UK. The company’s artificial intelligence arm, DeepMind, received the data in 2015 from the Royal Free NHS Trust in London for the purpose of testing a smartphone app called Streams.”
The Next Web: DeepMind’s astounding new ‘Gato’ AI makes me fear humans will never achieve AGI. “DeepMind today unveiled a new multi-modal AI system capable of performing more than 600 different tasks. Dubbed Gato, it’s arguably the most impressive all-in-one machine learning kit the world’s seen yet.”
Financial Times: DeepMind accused of mishandling sexual misconduct allegations. “A former DeepMind employee has accused the artificial intelligence group’s leadership of mishandling multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, raising concerns over how grievances are dealt with at the Google-acquired company. The female member of staff, whom we call Julia to protect her identity, claimed in December 2019 that a senior researcher at the London-based group had sexually assaulted her twice, threatened suicide, and alluded to previous instances of rape, among other concerning behavior.”
BBC: DeepMind AI rivals average human competitive coder. “Google-owned artificial-intelligence company DeepMind has announced a big achievement in competitive computer programming. After simulating 10 contests, with more than 5,000 participants, AI system AlphaCode has ranked in the top 54% of competitors.”
New York Times: DeepMind co-founder leaves Google after a rocky tenure.. “Mustafa Suleyman, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, is leaving Google to join the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. The departure of Mr. Suleyman, who was Google’s vice president of product management and policy for artificial intelligence, closes a tumultuous tenure at the company.”
New York Times: Google’s parent launches a company dedicated to drug discovery.. “Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is launching an operation dedicated to drug discovery. The new company, called Isomorphic Labs, will build on recent research from DeepMind, a London-based artificial intelligence lab also owned and operated by Alphabet.”
The Guardian: AI firm DeepMind puts database of the building blocks of life online. “Last year the artificial intelligence group DeepMind cracked a mystery that has flummoxed scientists for decades: stripping bare the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. Now, having amassed a database of nearly all human protein structures, the company is making the resource available online free for researchers to use.”
BloombergQuint: Google Waives $1.5 Billion DeepMind Loan as AI Costs Mount. “Alphabet Inc.’s Google waived a 1.1 billion-pound loan ($1.5 billion) to DeepMind Technologies Ltd. in 2019 after the U.K.-based artificial intelligence lab continued to ramp up the scale of its research and development. Revenue jumped 158% in 2019, DeepMind said in a financial filing this week. Sales were 265.5 million pounds, up from 102.8 million pounds a year earlier.”
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