London-based DeepMind was founded in 2010 and was later acquired by Google in 2014.
Alphabet-owned artificial intelligence firm DeepMind Technologies is shutting down its office in Canada’s Edmonton, the company’s spokesperson said and as reported by some media agencies. The move is seen as a part of the recent cost-cutting measures by Alphabet, the parent of tech giant Google.
According to a Reuters report, DeepMind’s Edmonton office is the only international site directly managed by the AI firm and is not housed within a Google-managed office. The company has offered engineers and researchers to relocate to another DeepMind office, such as in Montreal. However, employees handling organizational infrastructure roles will be laid off, Bloomberg reported.
London-based DeepMind was founded in 2010 and was later acquired by Google in 2014 to fuel its AI ambitions. DeepMind has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google’s parent Alphabet after the tech giant’s restructuring in 2015.
Alphabet, on the other hand, has recently laid off approximately 12,000 employees citing that the company was prepared for “a different economic reality.” Other multinational tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Twitter have also trimmed their workforce as they brace for a global economic slowdown. Music streaming application Spotify, on Monday, also announced letting go of 6% of its workforce, adding to the ongoing layoffs in the tech sector.
Meanwhile, Google’s competition in the AI segment has escalated over the years as several other tech giants, like Satya Nadella-led Microsoft, are heavily investing in the division. Microsoft on Monday announced a “multibillion dollar investment” of reportedly $10 billion in OpenAI, the parent of the wildly popular AI app ChatGPT.
