GOOGLE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Google’s work on and with AI revolves around two main areas: On the one hand, the company is using AI across its services, from the algorithms behind its search engine, to its AI-powered Google assistant. On the other hand, it is conducting research (either directly or through various Alphabet subsidiaries such as DeepMind) and investing in the development of AI for use in a wide range or sectors (e.g. health, agriculture, environmental protection).

The company’s AI for Social Good programme is dedicated to supporting the application of AI to address societal challenges, via initiatives such as the Google AI Impact Challenges and the Guide with educational content on machine learning basics (dedicated to social impact organisations interested in using AI). Google is publishing results of its AI research in a variety of venues and provides open source tools and systems such as TensorFlow.

Google has AI labs and research around the world, including in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Switzerland, and the UK.

Google has outlined a series of principles to guide its work on AI. In its view, AI should be socially beneficial; avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias; be built and tested for safety; be accountable to people; incorporate privacy design principles; uphold high standards of scientific excellence; and be made available for users that accord with these principles. The company committed to updating these principles on a regular basis, and it has also adopted a Guide of responsible AI practices.

Google is a regular contributor to public debates on the policy implications of AI. For instance, the company has called on governments to encourage the responsible use of AI, by, for instance, promoting constructive governance frameworks. The company believes that existing governance structures are likely to be sufficient to address many AI policy implications, and that any additional laws and norms should ‘retain flexibility as new possibilities and problems emerge’. The company also argues that international standards and norms could be useful in clarifying shared expectations of behaviour when it comes to the development and the use of AI.

In 2017, it emerged that the US Department of Defence started Project Maven (Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Team) – in collaboration with Google, to use AI in improving drone strikes and other lethal attacks in the battlefield. Following protests from Google employees, the company decided not to renew the contract upon its expiration in 2019.

Google has committed not to design or deploy AI in: weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people; technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms; and, technologies whose purpose contravenes the widely accepted principles of international law and human rights. The company has also said it would not sell general-purpose facial recognition technology before addressing tech and policy questions.

Google is a member of the Partnership on AI, an international coalition focused on promoting responsible use of AI.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

Google is undertaking research into quantum computing through its Google AI Quantum team. The goal is to ‘develop quantum processors and novel quantum algorithms to help researchers and developers solve near-term problems both theoretical and practical ’.

In October 2019, Google claimed that it achieved ‘quantum supremacy’ with a 53-qubit quantum computing chip that took 200 seconds to carry out a specific calculation which would have taken a classical computer 10 000 years to complete.

Google is one of the key partners of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL) established by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance quantum computing research. Google’s 2019 quantum breakthrough was achieved in cooperation with NASA and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The company has also concluded partnerships with other entities working on quantum computing, such as the German research centre Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

AUGMENTED/VIRTUAL REALITY

Google is providing various services and products involving the use of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technology. Examples include Google Lens,  YouTube VR, Earth VR (Google Earth in virtual reality), and Expeditions (using AR/VR to improve learning experiences).

The company is partnering with museums, cultural centres, environmental institutions, and other organisations around the world in the frameworks of initiatives such as Google Arts & Culture and Heritage on the Edge.