Google’s $400 million acquisition of the UK-based company, called DeepMind, could change the way we look at how humans interact with internet and cloud-connected technologies… forever.
DeepMind’s paradigm shifting work, combined with the nearly infinite tech-powerhouse of Google, could introduce a new kind of learning process. Much the same way the human brain is able to adapt to its environment through neuroplasticity, this DeepMind technology will respond similarly. According to DigitalTrends.com, this technology more closely resembles neuroscience, saying that it will soon be able to ‘learn’ the way humans do: “…for instance, neural networks simulate synaptic connections akin to a biological brain.”
It will be a form of technology that can reason within the parameters established for it, draw conclusions autonomously and be able to make correlations without human guidance. Also, according to the article, this technology will undergo ‘supervised training,’ meaning that its evolution will appear more like teaching rather than programming.
With all of these new tech concepts and their implications, it’s easy to feel like this direction is more sci-fi than practical; however, knowing Google, they are not ones for doing the impractical. Google will certainly be able to benefit from such technology, and upper echelon techies have a few theories on where DeepMind’s ideas will be applied.
Google’s Bread and Butter …Advertising
Without programs like Adsense and Adwords, Google wouldn’t be the company it is today. Advertising is how Google can bring home the bacon; so naturally, the company is going to use this brainy tech to bring near-godlike capabilities to the table.
Considering how Google is already known for recording browser histories, search terms, etc., for the purpose of figuring out how to target market its users, Google can now apply DeepMind’s concepts to figure out how to connect businesses with their potential clients. Before, Google was just guessing; but soon, it may be able to make highly educated guesses based on understanding the person in front of the screen. Google would no longer have to correlate likely customers based on mere demographics, but instead through intelligent, comprehensive, evolving and intimate knowledge of its billions of users.
Seek & Ye Shall Find
In the old days of web searching, you might type in ‘kill mosquitoes,’ and get back listing after listing of merchandise for a band called ‘Kill Mosquitoes’ (yes, this is a silly example, but bear with me). However, you actually wanted to learn about ways to kill mosquitoes. Well, Google’s AI may already know you, so it would instead direct you to sites and businesses that sell products for the dispatching of those bloodsuckers.
In addition, Google+ would carry those same advantages. It would likely become one of the most intelligent social media networks because it wouldn’t just know its users – it would know its users personally. While Facebook is working on these same capabilities, Google’s sheer size and power might just win the arms race.
Video, Speech Recognition and Facial Recognition
This application to social media is largely dependent on the information it can glean through picture, speech and video data. Presently, Google isn’t able to make a whole lot of sense out of those oceans of information – but if Google is able to use its AI to recognize faces, understand us when we speak, and intelligently watch videos and make sense of the content, then a user’s relationship with Google+ may change entirely.
The difference seen in this evolution would be like watching humans move from chisels and stone tablets to typing on a word processor.
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