How DeepMind's artificial intelligence will make Google even smarter

Google is ringing in 2014 with a spending spree, first dropping 3.2 billion to acquire Nest Technologies and now spending a reported 400 million (or more) on the UK-based artificial intelligence outfit DeepMind. It's no secret that Google has an interest in artificial intelligence; after all, technologies derived from AI research help fuel Google's core search and advertising businesses. AI also plays a key role in Google's mobile services, its autonomous cars, and its growing stable of robotics technologies. And with the addition of futurist Ray Kurzweil to its ranks in 2012, Google also has the grandfather of "strong AI" on board, a man who forecasts that intelligent machines may exist by midcentury. If all this sounds troubling, don't worry: Google's acquisition of DeepMind isn't about fusing a mechanical brain with faster-than-human robots and giving birth to the misanthropic Skynet computer network from the Terminator franchise.