Foreign media: Google co-founder Brin returns to the company to participate in the development of a new generation of AI systems
On July 21, according to the Wall Street Journal, Google (Google) co-founder Sergey Brin (Sergey Brin) returned to work at Google. In recent months, Brin usually went to Google’s Mountain View, California (Mountain View) office to work three to four days a week, working with researchers to develop Google’s next large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) system.
Sergey Brin Visual China Data Map
The Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Sergey Brin participated in meetings on AI at Google’s offices late last year, but now his participation has increased in frequency and intensity. Brin’s new stance is a marked change from the relatively hands-off approach he took after stepping down as an executive at parent company Alphabet in 2019. In addition, Brin was involved in personnel matters, such as hiring sought-after researchers.
The technology website 9to5Google also reported that Brin is working with a group of researchers to build the Google AI model Gemini. Google first revealed the general-purpose AI Gemini it is developing at the I/O developer conference in May. Technology media “Wired” pointed out in a report in June that Gemini will combine the technology behind AlphaGo with a large language model. The goal is to make the system have new capabilities, such as planning or problem solving, which are stronger than OpenAI’s GPT-4. According to outside speculation, the Gemini project is expected to be launched later this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in building the AI ​​model Gemini, Sergey Brin worked closely with researchers who discussed technical issues such as the “loss curve,” a measure of the performance of artificial intelligence programs over time, and that Brin convened Google employees every week to discuss new AI research.
A person familiar with Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s thinking about Brin’s return said Pichai was excited about Brin’s involvement and encouraged him to contribute. Current and former employees also said that some researchers welcomed Brin’s participation as a recognition of their work and a helpful intervention during the AI ​​team’s transition.
It is reported that in 1998, 24-year-old Sergey Brin and 25-year-old Larry Page (Larry Page) founded Google in a friend’s garage, and received 25 million US dollars in funding in the second year, helping Google enter a new stage of development.
In 2015, Google announced a major reorganization, not only forming a new company Alphabet, but also turning itself into a subsidiary of the latter. Brin stepped down as Alphabet president in 2019, but he remains on Alphabet’s board of directors. On the 2022 Global Billionaires List released by Forbes, Sergey Brin ranked seventh on the rich list with a net worth of US$107 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Brin’s energy is mainly focused on external interests such as airships and new forms of disaster aid, and he has worked hard to donate part of his huge wealth. According to data from S&P Capital IQ, Brin is the second largest individual shareholder of Alphabet, second only to Page in the number of shares held, and the value of the shares held is close to 90 billion US dollars.
Although Brin is now back at Google to focus on AI, employees feel he needs to keep up with the latest advances in artificial intelligence, and Brin has yet to make significant contributions to coding projects. Interestingly, Brin did not really pay attention to artificial intelligence technology a few years ago, and once doubted whether AI could make a big breakthrough, but then many of Google’s products adopted the research results of the Google Brain team, which made Brin subvert his previous thinking.
As of the close on July 20, Eastern Time, Google (GOOGL.US) fell 2.32% to US$119.2 per share, with a total market value of US$1.52 trillion.
