Andrew Ng Hates Paranoid Androids, and Other Fun Facts

What does artificial intelligence researcher Andrew Ng have in common with a "very depressed robot" from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Here are some fun facts about the man who connected graphics chips to neural networks and has taught millions of artificial intelligence students online. Google's deep-learning unit was originally called "Project Marvin" -- a possible reference to a morose and paranoid android with a "brain the size of a planet" from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Ng didn't like the association with "this very depressed robot," he says, so he cut to the chase and changed the name to Google Brain. Ng met his roboticist wife, Carol Reiley, at a robotics conference in Kobe, Japan.