Apply AI research to enrich the lives of billions of people around the world
Building useful products using new technology has always been one of my greatest joys. As a boy, I spent hours connecting resistors, capacitors and other electronic components to the wires. First, assemble the Morse Code circuit. Next, we’ll separate the circuits and reuse the wires and components to build a timer. Then disassemble the timer and build the amplifier. Analog electronic components provided the perfect toolkit for building and creating a young mind like me.
Soon, I was designing a processing chip for my first summer job at Telecom giant Marconi. This will lead to research on electronics and software at universities, and on lab day, you will build circuit boards for radio receivers. Currently, there are pocket-sized computers and huge data centers (all connected via light speed communications), running powerful software for the benefit of businesses, communities and consumers around the world.
However, artificial intelligence (AI) has the greatest potential for humanity. This technology learns and repetitively with the ability to solve problems at every turn. Combined with human ingenuity and direction, AI has been able to discover new solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges at speeds and scales that were previously unthinkable.
AI is not a hype. Probably the ultimate general tool. As Chief Business Officer (CBO) of one of the world’s leading AI companies, I see every day that this technology can enrich the lives of billions of people around the world.
Finding the best way to use AI to build useful products is a key focus of my work and life today. This is the topic of conversations in external engagement with business leaders, product people and engineers, like upcoming Luminary Keynote at this week’s AI Hardware Summit.
Take research from the lab
My main focus as a CBO is embracing cutting-edge research breakthroughs and focusing on solving everyday business problems with technology. This intersection is incredibly exciting as we often work in unknown territory and introduce tools with the promise of solving problems of billions of people around the world.
Why is it important for us as a future research organization to tackle global challenges that impact people every day? One of the things that makes DeepMind very special (but not the only one!) is its ability to bridge hundreds, if not thousands, of AI research, if not thousands, of AI, if not prepared, to impact billions.
We are creating one of the world’s largest libraries of AI solutions, and parent company Alphabet has a market of amazing problems to solve. Together, we can focus on the most challenging technical challenges in the greatest rewards and create useful products that help billions of people at critical moments.
For example, it helped extend the battery life of mobile phones on Android operating systems. This is used by over a billion people every day. This can be a lifesaver, especially when needed. This is one of the most universally requested problems to solve, and becomes increasingly important as we move into a cleaner and greener world.
One of the biggest challenges and opportunities to work in this field is finding ways to leverage the possibilities of AI while ensuring that it is safe, ethical and inclusive at every stage, from research and development to applications and impact.
In recent years, we have spoken about the possibilities of our work and have actually benefited billions of people every day. And now we are in the process of applying AI to Nobel Prize-level issues in science and society.
Benefits the lives of large people
But there are so many possibilities, where do you start? To ensure that our work is applied in the most effective way possible, we begin by searching for core, transformational challenges that will help us tackle many other efficiencies, if solved, across a wide range of issues.
One of the most prominent examples of this is Alphafold, an AI system that can accurately predict the components of life, the protein structure. With this system we helped us solve the epic challenges of biology this 50-year-old.
I have also worked in areas such as sustainability. In particular, we are looking at ways that AI can help optimize energy production and consumption. For example, we created an AI system that can control plasma through the nuclear fusion process. This could lead to safer and cleaner energy production. It also helped reduce energy consumption, improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions at Google’s vast data centers. These advancements are a game changer in the way energy is managed and used in society.
Similarly, Muzero shows that it is very likely to save time and energy on a large scale. It was originally built to advance gaming intelligence, and now it helps to enhance your YouTube experience. Nearly 700,000 hours of content is viewed on YouTube every minute. This is an incredible amount of web traffic. For example, optimizing the way videos are compressed has helped reduce data and energy usage and increase access to video content around the world.
I’m looking for the future
AI is undoubtedly the most transformative technology of our time. This exceptional promise also requires exceptional caution. Predicting the potential impact of a common and transformative technology as AI is extremely difficult and requires careful consideration.
For this reason, we have devised a long-term scientific roadmap to help guide research. And as we continue along this journey, we continue to assess the long-term impact of our work and ensure it is being deployed in a safe and responsible way.
We need to have the smartest minds working on things step by step. This is too big, too fast and too important to break things, so responsible pioneers are at the heart of everything we do.
It is extremely exciting to be able to truly connect the vast range of problems that help our work solve with the potential to bring great benefits to humanity with access to billions of people around the world. For me, the combination is truly extraordinary.
