DeepMind expands to US with ‘Applied’ team focusing on improving Google products

After making huge strides with AlphaGo and beginning work on replicating similar victories in StarCraft, Google DeepMind is setting up a new US division (via Bloomberg). Specifically, the first team outside of London will work on more consumer-facing products and on solving “real-world problems at Google-scale.”

Internally, DeepMind is split into a Research division and another group that works on applying AI to new products and services. The vast majority of the company’s 350 employees are working on pure computer science, while only a quarter are focussed on the Applied division.

In the past, the Applied team has worked on such projects as making Google’s data centers more energy efficient and partnering with the National Health Service in the UK to improve patient health and care.

Stateside, the small team of “a couple dozen” researchers will be based in Google’s Mountain View headquarters. The first job opening is for an “Applied Research Scientist” that will work in multiple fields, including “Google Play to Ads to Shopping.”

The DeepMind Applied group collaborates with teams at Google and elsewhere to apply our cutting-edge research to products and infrastructure used by many millions of people across the world.

The move comes as Google and DeepMind work on “bridg[ing] the gap” and collaborating “more closely to bring our research breakthroughs to Google users around the world.” Notably, the internal Google Brain team also has a similar mandate of applying machine learning to improve products.