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DeepMind, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, has played a pivotal role in advancing the field of machine learning (ML). But who owns DeepMind in 2024?
In this article, we explore the founders, current ownership, and organizational structure of the company.
Key Facts
- Founded in 2010, DeepMind rose to prominence by achieving breakthroughs in machine learning, particularly with its AlphaGo program, which defeated a world champion Go player in 2016.
- The company has also contributed to healthcare, utilizing AI to improve diagnosis and treatment planning.
- DeepMind continues to lead AI research with ongoing initiatives spanning reinforcement learning, neuroscience, and robotics. These efforts aim to push the boundaries of what AI can achieve across various domains.
- As a subsidiary of Alphabet, DeepMind benefits from the financial and infrastructural support of one of the world’s largest technology conglomerates. This support allows DeepMind to pursue ambitious projects and further its impact on the AI landscape.
Who Are DeepMind’s Co-Founders?
DeepMind was founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg, and Mustafa Suleyman. Each co-founder brought a unique set of skills and expertise to the table, laying the foundation for what would become one of the most influential AI companies globally.
Demis Hassabis: a British computer scientist, AI researcher, and entrepreneur, Hassabis was a child prodigy in chess from the age of 4, and in his early career, he was a video game AI programmer and designer.
As well as chief executive officer (CEO) of DeepMind, Hassabis is co-founder of Isomorphic Labs and a UK Government AI Advisor.
Shane Legg: New Zealand-born Legg is a machine learning researcher and entrepreneur who works at DeepMind as chief AGI scientist.
He is known for his academic work on artificial general intelligence (AGI), re-introducing and popularizing the term with Ben Goertzel to describe an AI that can do cognitive tasks that humans can do.
Mustafa Suleyman: a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur, Suleyman launched DeepMind Health at the Royal Society of Medicine in 2016 to help the NHS and other partners improve frontline healthcare services.
Suleyman left In December 2019 to join Google in a policy role. He then left Google in January 2022 and joined Greylock Partners and in March 2022, co-founded Inflection AI to leverage “AI to help humans ‘talk’ to computersю”
When Was DeepMind Founded?
The DeepMind founders formed the company in September 2010, marking the beginning of a journey that would redefine the possibilities of AI. The co-founders aimed to create AI systems that could learn and perform tasks with human-like proficiency.
Who Owns DeepMind Today?
In 2014, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, acquired DeepMind for a reported ￡400m ($509m).
“This partnership will allow us to turbo-charge our mission to harness the power of machine learning tools to tackle some of society’s toughest problems and help make our everyday lives more productive and enjoyable,” Hassabis said in a statement at the time.
DeepMind is now an integral part of the tech conglomerate’s diverse portfolio.
Is DeepMind a Public Company?
DeepMind is not a public company, as it operates as a subsidiary of Google. This means there is no DeepMind stock publicly traded on exchanges. However, this could change in the future if Alphabet decides to spin it out as a public company.
DeepMind’s Corporate and Organizational Structure
While it functions as a semi-autonomous entity within Alphabet, DeepMind benefits from the resources and support of its parent company.
In April 2023, Alphabet and DeepMind created a unit to “help us build more capable systems more safely and responsibly”. The Google DeepMind group will bring together two leading research groups in the AI field: the Brain team from Google Research and DeepMind. Combining the teams, backed by the computational resources of Google, aims to significantly accelerate the company’s progress in AI.
As CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis leads the development of its general AI systems to power the next generation of Alphabet’s products and services.
Jeff Dean is the Chief Scientist of Google Research and Google DeepMind, reporting to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Working alongside Hassabis, Dean is setting the future direction of the company’s AI research and leading its most strategic technical projects related to AI.
The Bottom Line
DeepMind, with its pioneering advancements in artificial intelligence, continues to shape the future of technology. The integration of DeepMind into Alphabet’s ecosystem aims to keep both at the forefront of AI development, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in the field of artificial intelligence.
