How Google Plans to Solve Artificial Intelligence (Technology Review)

From an extensive Google DeepMind profile; also see Why firms are piling into artificial intelligence (The Economist)

"Success could raise some tough philosophical and ethical questions about what it means to be human and the acceptable use cases of artificial intelligence. Hassabis says he encourages discussion of the possible risks of the technology. (Although he also notes with satisfaction that physicist Stephen Hawking has stopped warning that artificial intelligence could wipe out humans since meeting with Hassabis; Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has likened artificial intelligence research to “summoning the demon,” has also received an anti-pep talk.) DeepMind has an internal ethics board of philosophers, lawyers, and businesspeople. Hassabis says their names will probably be disclosed “shortly,” and that he's also working to convene a similar, external, board shared across multiple computing companies.

DeepMind’s engineers don’t yet need ethics advice when planning new experiments, though, says Hassabis. “We're nowhere near anything we would be worried about,” he says. “It's more about getting everyone up to speed.” If everything works out as Hassabis hopes, his ethics board will eventually have real work to do."

How Google Plans to Solve Artificial Intelligence