<story><title>At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?_r=1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nosequel</author><text>One nitpicky-type thing for me in the article is saying that Sebastian Thrun invented the first driverless car.   Yes, he was the head of the Standford team who won in 2005, but he was on the CMU team the competition before where Red Whitaker was the team lead.   The fact that these teams were quite huge also prevents someone from saying that one person invented the driverless car.   Being team lead on a team who wins the second competition certainly doesn&apos;t mean that person invented the tech.   I know I&apos;m being anal about it, but there were a lot of people who competed in the DGC, and it is quite annoying to hear people mention his name in that regard.   Having talked to Sebastian a few times during the competition, I would think he thinks the same way.</text></comment>
<story><title>At Google X, a Top-Secret Lab Dreaming Up the Future</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?_r=1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>neilk</author><text>Here&apos;s a collection of quotes from the triumvirate about artificial intelligence.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ignoranceisfutile.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/google-founders-artificial-intelligence-quotes-archive/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ignoranceisfutile.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/google-fou...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Except, ignore the Moffett field thing. That has nothing to do with AI research as far as I know.)&lt;p&gt;Anyway, any Googler will confirm that Sergey Brin, in particular, keeps returning to this idea: that Google&apos;s ultimate destiny is to realize Strong AI.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m not saying they&apos;ve achieved anything. But I would not be surprised if they were putting substantial resources into it. It&apos;s even directly related to their bottom line. It doesn&apos;t have to end in HAL 9000. They may come up with some technology that is just more insightful about search queries. But even that would be worth billions and billions.</text></comment>