Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division

Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by vessenes on Saturday October 01, 2016 @06:37PM (#12620206)

Just the PR value from Alphago is probably worth more than $400mm. Traditionally google has significantly delayed announcements of very interesting tech for years; essentially waiting until they had replaced an entire technology before announcing the old one.

It seems kind of unlikely that Google is doing that in this case, (if so, the rev rate on new AI tech is insane, and, well, I'm waiting for our AI overlords politely), but I would be very surprised if they were pushing out news about their most bleeding-edge tech.

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Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by jomamaxx on Sunday October 02, 2016 @11:05PM (#12625350)

"Just the PR value from Alphago is probably worth more than $400mm. "

No - it's definitely not.

Go and walk down the street in any part of the world and ask how many people know about this acquisition? Nobody will.

Even the vast majority of technical people will have never heard of this acquisition.

There is no 'PR' at all, really, from this acquisition.

I don't think any acquisition in history was worth it's 'PR' value.

Unless there is mass market news on it, in which households are getting to know about it, then possibly, but even then, I can't think of a single acquisition that was worth it.

Zuckerberg bought some tech that enables you to wear 'masks' on your face while on video - when he made the announcement, it was fun (he was wearing and Iron Man mask) - and it got picked up globally. If they paid less than $2M for that company, maybe it was worth it for the 'PR value'. But even then it's shaky.

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