Google DeepMind and Oxford University have announced a “wide-ranging, mutually beneficial” partnership.
The Computer Science Department and the Engineering Department at Oxford University will share a “substantial contribution” by Google. In a post on its blog, Google did not reveal any financial details, instead saying that the partnership will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops to “share knowledge and expertise”.
Google DeepMind has hired seven leading academics and experts from two startups within the two departments. Three members of the group are professors who will hold joint appointments with Oxford University. Startup Dark Blue Labs was co-founded earlier this year by Computer Science Professors Phil Blunsom and Nando de Freitas, together with graduates Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann. In a statement, the DBL team said they will “fully integrate into Google DeepMind” whilst also maintaining a “strong link to the university”.
The co-founders of Vision Factory, a startup that recently developed one of the winning systems at the 2014 ImageNet competition, will also merge with DeepMind. Dr Karen Simonyan and Max Jaderberg will fully join the team, whilst Professor Andrew Zisserman – the only three-time winner of the Marr Prize for computer vision – will have a joint appointment with Oxford University.
According to Dark Blue Labs CEO Dr Karl Moritz, the contribution made by Google DeepMind to Oxford University will create “significant numbers of extra scholarships and funding to talented DPhil students”. Google will also offer a number of internship to students allowing them to “receive practical experience with a world-leading company”. The Department of Computer Science commented saying: “By establishing a strong research group in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) in London – with ties to Oxford – gives students in those areas additional career options going forward.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, is actively expanding its A.I. capabilities as it looks to maintain its dominance over the Internet search market and to continue developing new products such as self-driving cars. A.I. research firm DeepMind, and the company’s founder British scientist Demis Hassabis, was acqui-hired by Google for $400 million according to media reports. Hassabis, commenting on the new hires said: “We are thrilled to welcome these extremely talented machine learning researchers to the Google DeepMind team and are excited about the potential impact of the advances their research will bring.”
Computer Science undergraduate Joshua Clark commented on the new partnership saying: “I’m excited for this project… [it] will allow people to work both in the distinct culture and trappings of the University and with resources only accessible to industry giants… such research should inspire future applicants at all levels.”
Visiting Computer Science student Paul Logan thinks that “it’s great that Google is sourcing from Oxford” but sees the partnership as “just a company acting in its best interest to increase market share, and a university acting to increase publicity, research funding, and student career interests.” Hassabis, said on Google’s blog, “these exciting partnerships underline how committed Google DeepMind is to supporting the development of UK academia and the growth of strong scientific research labs.”
The full effects of the new partnership will not be felt for some time, but the Computer Science Department said, “We look forward to the relationship continuing to grow, and are excited at the prospect of what we can achieve together with Google DeepMind.”
