Google: Google merges DeepMind and Brain

Google has announced a merger between its DeepMind subsidiary and Google Research's Brain division, dubbed 'Google DeepMind, as it pursues its big AI push. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined that this move will "significantly accelerate" the company's AI progress. This move may come as a surprise to some, considering the two teams were seen as rivals. S

peaking about the teams uniting, DeepMind co-founder and head Demis Hassabis, said: "The research advances from the phenomenal Brain and DeepMind teams laid much of the foundations of the current AI industry, from Deep Reinforcement Learning to Transformers, and the work we are going to be doing now as part of this new combined unit will create the next wave of world-changing breakthroughs."

In a memo to employees, Hassabis, who has been named as CEO of Google DeepMind, said that through the entity's creation, he believes the company can deliver faster on creating a future where "the lives of billions of people" while transforming industries, advancing science and serving diverse communities. "Building ever more capable and general AI, safely and responsibly, demands that we solve some of the hardest scientific and engineering challenges of our time," he said. 

Adding: "For that, we need to work with greater speed, stronger collaboration and execution, and to simplify the way we make decisions to focus on achieving the biggest impact."