UK Edition
DeepMind boss defends controversial Google health deal
DeepMind has defended a deal it made with Google to relinquish control of its health venture, claiming it will save “millions” of lives.
Dominic King, the British artificial intelligence lab's health chief, was responding to criticism after Google said it would absorb DeepMind's health division.
The US internet giant had promised to establish a firewall between itself and DeepMind when it bought the company in 2014, but revealed on Tuesday that the lab's health division and its Streams app, developed with the NHS, would become part of Google.
“Our vision is for Streams to become an indispensable assistant for nurses and doctors everywhere," Dr King said on Twitter. He said the deal would "make the most of advances in AI to deliver better care" and that "we have seen promising early signs of what may be possible”
Dr King has been leading work on the Streams app, which is currently being by the NHS to help diagnose kidney disease and processes NHS patient data. Privacy advocates say that by allowing Google to absorb Streams, DeepMind now has little hope of guaranteeing patient data will be used in an ethical way.
Dr King said the public was “rightly concerned about what happens with patient data” but insisted that the data did not belong to DeepMind or Google but partners like the Royal Free London Hospital. “We process it according to their instructions - nothing more,” he added. "Streams could make a huge difference to millions of people around the world."
A DeepMind spokesman said: “In every case, patient data is, and will continue to be, kept strictly separate from other Google projects or products, and subject to strict audit and access controls.”
DeepMind has found itself under scrutiny since co-founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman agreed to be bought by Alphabet in 2014 for £400m. It has repeatedly tried to distance itself from Google, which is largely focused on the popular Search engine, applications and creating advertising revenue which fund the other companies, or “other bets” under the Alphabet umbrella. DeepMind will remain a separate entity.
DeepMind is headquartered in London and has satellite offices in the US and Canada,