Why has Google bought an AI company? - BBC News

Earlier this week Google spent £400m buying a UK firm that specialised in artificial intelligence. DeepMind is a privately-held company founded by Demis Hassabis, a 37-year-old neuroscientist and former teenage chess prodigy, along with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. According to DeepMind's website it builds "powerful general-purpose learning algorithms". But what does Google plan to do with its newly purchased expertise? The company has not issued a detailed statement on the acquisition, but that has not stopped industry observers from trying to work out the motives behind it.