Google's using neural networks to make image files smaller

Somewhere at Google, researchers are blurring the line between reality and fiction. Tell me if you've heard this one, Silicon Valley fans -- a small team builds a neural network for the sole purpose of making media files teeny-tiny. Google's latest experiment isn't exactly the HBO hit's Pied Piper come to life, but it's a step in that direction: using trained computer intelligence to make images smaller than current JPEG compression allows. Google's approach relies on forcing its network to learn compression the hard way. Researchers sampled six million compressed photos from the internet and broke them each 32 x 32 pixel pieces.