Google is shelling out $400 million to buy a secretive artificial intelligence company called DeepMind....Based in London, DeepMind was founded by games prodigy and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, Skype & Kazaa developer Jaan Tallin and researcher Shane Legg.
I liked Legg’s blog & papers and was sad when he basically stopped in the interests of working on his company, but one can hardly argue with the results.
Some names familiar to LWers seem to have just made their fortunes (again, in some cases); http://recode.net/2014/01/26/exclusive-google-to-buy-artificial-intelligence-startup-deepmind-for-400m/ (via HN)
I liked Legg’s blog & papers and was sad when he basically stopped in the interests of working on his company, but one can hardly argue with the results.
EDIT: bigger discussion at http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/jks/google_may_be_trying_to_take_over_the_world/#comments—new aspects: $500m, not $400m; DeepMind proposes an ethics board