Latest news with #DeepMind
Gizmodo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Win AI by Copying Everyone Smarter Than Him
Mark Zuckerberg's favorite move? Copy, poach, repeat. It made him one of the richest people on the planet. Now, he's dusting off that playbook for his biggest challenge yet: the AI race. Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is on a hiring and buying spree, throwing eye-watering sums at top AI researchers and startups in a last-ditch effort to catch up to OpenAI, Google, and upstart rivals like DeepSeek. It's a full-court press to convince the tech world and investors that Meta still matters in the AI race. But here's the twist: Zuckerberg is raiding everyone else's. In the past few weeks, Zuckerberg AI team has: So far, Meta has nabbed several big names: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, Xiaohua Zhai (formerly OpenAI), and others like Trapit Bansal and Jack Rae, who left Google DeepMind. The company also reportedly tried (and failed) to lure high-profile AI researchers like OpenAI's Noam Brown and Google's Koray Kavukcuoglu. The unit's mission? To build AI systems smarter than humans. Yes, really. This is Zuckerberg's version of the Thanos snap: collect the stones, snap his fingers, and will himself to the front of the AI line. Zuckerberg is also throwing cash at startups. Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI and is in talks to acquire PlayAI, which develops eerily human-sounding voice agents. There were also feelers sent to Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence and Mira Murati's new lab Thinking Machines. If it feels like Zuckerberg is panic-buying his way through the AI mall before the shelves are empty, that's because he kind of is. Meta's AI assistant, Meta AI, is currently no match for OpenAI's GPT-4o, Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, or DeepSeek's R1. Those models can reason. Meta's can reply. It's like asking a toddler to outwit a chess master. And that's the problem: Meta doesn't just want to catch up; it wants to leapfrog. Zuckerberg knows he can't wait years for homegrown breakthroughs. So he's doing what he's always done best: copy, buy, and scale fast. It's the Facebook playbook all over again. Stories, Reels, Threads: all riffs on rival ideas. And now, AI. Meta is behind in the AI race. Big time. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek's R1 can reason, plan, and problem-solve. Meta's AI? It's still playing catch-up, better at small talk than solving real problems. Build AI that can think and reason, like OpenAI's and Google's best systems, and do it fast enough to stay relevant in the AI arms race. OpenAI's next models are about to go open source. That could erase Meta's last advantage: its free, open AI models that developers love. Zuckerberg has declared 2025 the year of AI for Meta. It has to be. The company's ad business is under pressure, Threads is floundering, and TikTok is still eating Instagram's lunch. Meanwhile, OpenAI is flirting with becoming a full-on social network, threatening Meta on its home turf. The new plan is to go all-in on 'reasoning agents,' AI tools that can think through problems step-by-step, not just autocomplete your thoughts. These agents could power business assistants, customer support bots, or even future consumer apps. But Meta needs one thing first: actual intelligence. Even OpenAI's Sam Altman is rolling his eyes. In a recent podcast with his brother, he said Meta's strategy is obvious: 'copy OpenAI, try to poach talent, outspend everyone.' But Altman warns that copying doesn't build a culture of innovation, and culture is what wins in the long run. 'I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor,' Altman told his brother. But 'their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they've hoped. And I respect like being aggressive and continuing to try new things.' He didn't stop there. 'They started making these, like, giant offers to a lot of people on our team, you know, like $100 million signing bonuses,' Altman said, adding:'It is crazy.' He accused Meta of 'just trying to copy OpenAI, down to the UI mistakes,' Altman added. Altman even called out Facebook's addiction to attention-hacking, saying OpenAI wants to be 'the only tech company that doesn't feel adversarial.' Translation: Meta tries to hack your brain; we're trying to help it. New episode of Uncapped with @sama. Enjoy 🤗 — Jack Altman (@jaltma) June 17, 2025Zuckerberg has always been a fast follower, not a first mover. This worked for social media. And if history is any guide, he'll land a few hits. He's great at absorbing features, scaling fast, and bulldozing rivals with sheer force. But the AI race is different. It's about innovation. So far, Meta's biggest AI play is its wallet. Whether that's enough to win a race where originality matters as much as firepower remains to be seen. For now, Zuckerberg is betting that you can't lose if you buy everyone who knows how to win. But in a world where AI shapes power, privacy, and the future of work, we all have a stake in whether these strategies actually produce safe, useful tech, or just more hype.
Entrepreneur
19 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
AI This Week: Offline Models, Nuclear Systems, and a Surge in Industrial Automation
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. This week in artificial intelligence (AI), developments highlighted a shift towards edge computing, offline capability, and strategic investments across infrastructure, industry, and enterprise. Google Pushes Offline AI with Gemma 3n and Gemini Robotics Google formally launched Gemma 3n, a multimodal, open-source AI model capable of running entirely offline on devices with as little as 2GB RAM. Built on a new architecture called MatFormer, it allows scalable performance across hardware constraints and supports tasks involving text, video, image and audio. Key innovations such as KV Cache Sharing and Per-Layer Embeddings reduce memory load and speed up real-time applications like voice assistants and video analysis. Gemma 3n supports over 140 languages and processes content in 35, without requiring any cloud connection,"offering a significant advantage for privacy-sensitive and remote environments. Meanwhile, Google DeepMind unveiled Gemini Robotics On-Device, a lightweight AI model designed to run locally on robots such as Franka FR3 and Apollo. Trained initially on ALOHA systems, Gemini can understand natural language, execute complex multi-step commands, and perform dexterous tasks like folding clothes and unzipping bags all without internet access. The model is built for latency-sensitive, low-compute environments, allowing robotic systems to operate independently in the field. Palantir to Develop AI Operating System for Nuclear Construction Palantir Technologies entered into a USD 100 million, five-year agreement with a Kentucky-based nuclear energy company to co-develop a Nuclear Operating System (NOS). The project follows recent executive orders in the United States aimed at accelerating domestic nuclear plant construction amid soaring demand from AI data centres and cryptocurrency mining operations. The NOS is intended to reduce costs, simplify planning, and accelerate construction timelines for new nuclear reactors. The initiative underscores how AI is now being applied to complex, regulated infrastructure sectors. HCLTech Strengthens Enterprise AI Play through Salesforce and Global Alliances HCLTech expanded its partnership with Salesforce to drive adoption of agentic AI solutions using the Salesforce Agentforce platform across sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and financial services. The Indian IT major also announced a strategic alliance with AMD to accelerate digital transformation globally and signed a long-term agreement with European energy firm to modernise its cloud infrastructure using AI. Additionally, HCLTech secured an engineering services contract with Volvo Group to support automotive innovation from its global centres. Despite these strategic moves, analysts maintain a cautious view on the stock, with a consensus rating of 'Hold' and an average price target of INR 1,670, suggesting a potential downside of approximately 3 per cent from current levels. Apptronik Launches Elevate Robotics to Advance Industrial Automation In a bid to go beyond humanoid AI systems, Apptronik launched Elevate Robotics, a wholly owned subsidiary focused on developing industrial-grade mobile manipulation systems. The spin-off aims to build "superhuman" robots designed for heavy-duty industrial tasks. Elevate will operate independently, leveraging Apptronik's decade of expertise and recent funding,"bringing the company's total Series A funding to USD 403 million, with backing from investors such as Google, Mercedes-Benz, and Japan Post Capital. The move reflects a broader trend of AI being integrated into large-scale, labour-intensive sectors. Google Launches Doppl: An AI-Powered Virtual Try-On App Google also released Doppl, an experimental AI app under Google Labs, which lets users virtually try on outfits by uploading a full-length photo. The app uses AI to simulate how clothing would look on a person's body, offering both static visuals and animated try-ons. Currently available in the United States on iOS and Android, the app has not yet been rolled out internationally. Meta in Talks to Raise USD 29 Billion for AI Data Centres According to media reports, Meta is in discussions to raise USD 29 billion,comprising USD 3 billion in equity and USD 26 billion in debts from private equity firms including Apollo Global Management, KKR, Brookfield, Carlyle, and PIMCO. The funding will support Meta's ongoing expansion of AI-focused data centres. The move is part of Meta's broader AI strategy, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating earlier this year that the company plans to spend up to USD 65 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alphabet Google's (GOOGL) DeepMind Unveils AlphaGenome to Revolutionize DNA Research
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the . On June 25, Google's DeepMind announced the launch of AlphaGenome: an AI model that helps scientists better understand DNA, the hereditary material in all organisms. The new artificial intelligence tool by Google is designed to predict how genetic variations in human DNA impact biological processes that regulate genes. This AI model is capable of analyzing up to 1 million DNA base pairs and predicting thousands of molecular properties related to regulatory activity. It can also assess the effects of genetic variants by comparing predictions between mutated and unmutated sequences. The company is making AlphaGenome available in preview via their AlphaGenome API for non-commercial research, and also plans to release the model in the future. The predictive capabilities offered by AlphaGenome will help more accurately predict genetic disruptions, guide the design of synthetic DNA with specific regulatory function, and also accelerate our understanding of the genome. Photo by Kai Wenzel on Unsplash 'AlphaGenome will be a powerful tool for the field. Determining the relevance of different non-coding variants can be extremely challenging, particularly to do at scale. This tool will provide a crucial piece of the puzzle, allowing us to make better connections to understand diseases like cancer.' -Professor Marc Mansour, University College London Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOG as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 AI Stocks in the Spotlight and . Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Science
- Time Magazine
TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2025: Google DeepMind
Last October, Google DeepMind won bragging rights that its competitors in the field of AI could only dream of. A share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Demis Hassabis, its CEO, and John Jumper, an on-staff scientist, for the creation of AlphaFold: an AI system that can predict the 3D structure of any protein. The award vindicated DeepMind's decision to focus, at least in part, on solving tricky problems in the hard sciences. Tech companies often brag that future AIs will be able to cure all human diseases. But of the so-called 'frontier' AI companies, DeepMind—which Hassabis founded in 2010 and Google parent Alphabet acquired in 2014—is the only one that focuses on building tools like AlphaFold today. The free-to-use AI system has already helped scientists model protein structures in hours rather than years—accelerating work on malaria vaccines, human longevity, and cancer research. To be sure, DeepMind is also competing intently in the field du jour of AI research: large language models. Its latest model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, currently tops a popular (though constantly-changing) crowdsourced leaderboard judging models' intelligence. In an April interview with TIME, Hassabis said that he was working hard on leveraging this prowess to build a so-called 'universal digital assistant'—essentially a supercharged version of Siri or Alexa. That tech won't just pad Google's bottom line, he said. It will also enable future AIs that can carry out their own scientific research, potentially unlocking more miracle cures. 'I identify myself as a scientist first and foremost,' Hassabis said. 'The whole reason I'm doing everything I've done in my life is in the pursuit of knowledge and trying to understand the world around us.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Robotics May Be Alphabet's (GOOGL) Next Big Bet, Says Baird
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the top 10 picks from Harvard University's stock portfolio. The stock's position in the portfolio was marginally up in Q1, and it accounted for around 9.8% of the portfolio weight. Following the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) conference held in mid-June, Baird's analyst Colin Sebastian published a note on June 20 highlighting a potentially underappreciated area of growth for Alphabet: robotics. While the company is best known for its core businesses in Search, YouTube, Android, Cloud, and hardware, Sebastian believes its efforts in robotics AI, particularly through DeepMind, could become a meaningful contributor over time. Google introduced its new Gemini Robotics AI stack at the event, designed to support physical robots capable of language understanding, visual processing, and real-world decision-making. Unlike current industrial robots, which are built for specific tasks, the next wave, enabled by systems like Gemini, aims to handle a broader range of functions with greater adaptability. The analyst compared the upcoming opportunity to the 'ChatGPT moment' for robots. Sebastian pointed out that the Gemini platform incorporates what he refers to as 'embodied reasoning', allowing the same software stack to be deployed across multiple hardware form factors. Demonstrations included robots performing nuanced actions such as folding paper or finding objects, tasks that require a deeper level of contextual understanding than traditional automation. He believes this technology could play a foundational role as physical AI adoption accelerates, potentially evolving into a core platform alongside Android and Google Cloud. While still early, the long-term market opportunity, estimated by some to be over $100 billion, positions Alphabet as a potential leader and a 'key enabler' in a rapidly emerging space that may include competition from companies like OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla. Given this potential, Sebastian reiterated his Outperform rating on Alphabet shares and maintained a price target of $190. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the parent company of Google and a pioneer in internet-related services and products, including online advertising technologies, search engines, cloud computing, software, and hardware. The company is also a leading investor in data centers and fiber networks, operating a vast global network of data centers that support its cloud services and other digital offerings. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Best Tech Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
