Google has added another software company to its portfolio. This time the subject is DeepMind, a UK-based start-up focussed on developing machine learning for use in commercial applications. Terms were not revealed but media reports suggest a purchase price in the $400m-$500m region. Reports also suggest Facebook had shown interest in the company.
As far as we are aware, DeepMind does not have any commercially available products so Google is buying into the machine learning expertise of neuroscientist founder Demis Hassabis, Jaan Tallin (previously of Skype and Kazaa), and researcher Shane Legg. Google stepped up its investment in machine learning in 2012 when it hired the respected Ray Kurzweil as director of engineering with a remit to cover machine learning and language processing.
Machine learning is at the heart of technologies like predictive analytics, which is one of the high growth areas in an otherwise slow enterprise software market. It is attracting big investments too – IBM is putting $1bn into building a business around its Watson cognitive computing technology. At the heart, these technologies come down to understanding data in order to better understand people and their behaviour – something we highlighted in ESAS 2014 Predictions as part of the data-driven business trend.
Google could use machine intelligence to make its search engine not just radically better but radically different but it will have more ambitious plans given other recent acquisitions such as Boston Dynamics for robotics and Nest Labs in the connected home area (see here). Google is paying a lot for such an early stage company and it is refreshing that it looked to the UK for specialist machine learning expertise. DeepMind’s plans for its future will no doubt change but it will have access to deep resources to support its developments so the possibilities will be substantial.