Google just announced that they're making a big bet on artificial intelligence to move the company's services forward.
During Google's Q3 earnings call CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was "re-thinking" all of its products to include more artificial intelligence and an approach called machine learning.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has always played a huge part in Google's success. Behind the scenes, AI powers Google's translation program, image recognition, and email spam filters.
And this will only get more true over the years.
We talked to Geoffrey Hinton, AI researcher at Google and the University of Toronto, over email about the future of the field. He predicted that AI will likely loom ever larger in our lives, without our even knowing it.
"I think we will become highly dependent on very intelligent and knowledgeable assistants to help us with almost everything," Hinton told Tech Insider in an email.
Hinton is one of a few AI researchers who are responsible for the renewed interest in machine learning, the statistical AI algorithm that can learn and improve over time that was discussed in the earnings call.
Eventually, Hinton told Tech Insider, technology powered by machine learning could make the technologies we interact with even more seamless. It could learn our preferences and dislikes without asking us, like an attentive personal assistant who knows what you need before you do.
"At present, we have to adapt to new technology in order to use it, but as machine learning improves, the technology will adapt to us and this will make it very easy and natural to use," Hinton said.
Based on the earnings call, Google is making good on Hinton's predictions about integrating advanced AI technology into our lives.
"Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we're re-thinking how we're doing everything," Pichai said. "We are thoughtfully applying it across all our products, be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play. And we're in early days, but you will see us — in a systematic way — apply machine learning in all these areas."
It look's like Hinton's vision is coming true, one Google app at a time.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
