Google

The company that bought DNNresearch for $44 million, DeepMind for half a billion, and for a stretch in the mid-2010s looked like it was going to own AI outright. Then the argument at Musk's birthday party changed everything.

Part 7: The day Prometheus gave us ChatGPT

Part 7: The day Prometheus gave us ChatGPT

Part 7 of an ongoing series on Modern AI History. The Fire in the Mountain What we've really been trying to emphasise in the story so far is that AI didn't drop out of the sky. It feels that way now — there was a Tuesday in

Part 5: Attention is all you need

Part 5: Attention is all you need

Part 5 of an ongoing series on Modern AI History. While OpenAI's heist was getting underway in Menlo Park, progress at everyone's favourite search engine never paused. The next big AI breakthrough would come from Google, exactly as you'd expect — just not from the

Part 4: Open's Eleven

Part 4: Open's Eleven

Part 4 of an ongoing series on Modern AI History. All great heist movies have an iconic dining scene. The most famous, Heat, has De Niro and Pacino making a gentleman's agreement to jostle to their ends. Our story ends similarly, perhaps a little less gentlemanly, but starts

Part 3: The Maverick Magicians Who Turned a Page

Part 3: The Maverick Magicians Who Turned a Page

Part 3 of an ongoing series on Modern AI History. We didn't plan it this way, but our next story is also about a trio. Maybe there's something in threes. A five-minute walk from the brick column at King's Cross station where Harry Potter