In a recent statement on Monday, Google’s AI head emphasized the significant investment in AI technology, likening the financial commitment to the enthusiasm once seen in the cryptocurrency sector, Bloomberg reported. He confirmed that Google plans to allocate upwards of $100 billion to this initiative over the coming years.
During a TED conference held in Vancouver, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, discussed the tech giant’s strategic investment in AI. This revelation came in response to inquiries about OpenAI’s and Microsoft’s collaboration on a proposed U.S.-based data center known as “Stargate.” According to Bloomberg, this facility would feature a supercomputer powered by millions of AI chips.
He did not detail the specific ways in which Google plans to utilize the $100 billion investment, nor the timeframe over which it will be disbursed. However, he confidently stated that Google’s processing capabilities exceed those of Microsoft and any other competitors.
“We don’t talk about our specific numbers, but I think we’re investing more than that over time,” Hassabis said in response to the question about Stargate. He didn’t offer further details on Google’s spending plans, Bloomberg reported.
Hassabis, who initially launched DeepMind in 2010 and later saw it acquired by Google in 2014, has stated that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, boasts superior computing capabilities compared to competitors like Microsoft.
“That’s one of the reasons we teamed up with Google back in 2014, is we knew that in order to get to AGI we would need a lot of compute. Google had and still has the most computers,” Hassabis stated.
Discussing artificial general intelligence, which denotes AI systems that can match human intelligence across various tasks, Hassabis shared insights with the Financial Times in March. He noted that the extensive investment in AI, which rivals the fervor of cryptocurrency, tends to overshadow the remarkable scientific advancements and research underpinning AI development. He indicated that a portion of Google’s substantial $100 billion investment might be allocated to DeepMind, which focuses on the software aspects of AI.
Despite these investments, some of DeepMind’s projects have faced challenges. For instance, its research into AI-generated materials has not proven as transformative as hoped, and its efforts to develop a weather prediction model have not surpassed traditional forecasting techniques, according to the company itself.
However, to realize these ambitious goals, Hassabis emphasized the necessity of substantial computing resources. This requirement was a key factor in their decision to join forces with Google. While Google may not channel the entire $100 billion into one supercomputer, it is undeniably enhancing its computational resources.
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