(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc.'s Google said on Thursday it is merging teams focused on building artificial intelligence models across its Research and DeepMind divisions, in its latest effort to develop its AI portfolio. Google will move its responsible AI team focused on secure AI development from Research to DeepMind, bringing it closer to where AI models are built and scaled, the company said in a blog post. The move comes amid growing global concerns about the safety of AI and calls for regulation of the technology. The DeepMind team helped develop Google's most advanced artificial intelligence model, Gemini, which was announced late last year and can process information in various formats, including video, audio, and text. Gemini's rollout helped boost Alphabet's stock price, but it also came under fire for inaccuracies in its depiction of some historical image production. Google has since suspended the image generation feature.
The search engine giant merged its research units Google Brain and DeepMind a year ago to sharpen its focus on AI development and stay ahead of rivals such as Microsoft, a partner in ChatGPT and Sora maker OpenAI. did.
Separately, Microsoft last month named DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleiman to lead its newly created consumer AI division.
The consolidation of Google's AI teams follows a series of layoffs and cost cuts even as the company ramps up its investments in AI and automation. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said last year that the company plans to release a series of AI models in 2024.
(Reporting by Zahir Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)