In order to stay ahead of its rivals and contend with OpenAI, Google has taken a strategic step by merging forces with DeepMind. With this combination of personnel and resources, Google is hoping to boost developments in AI whilst still adhering to ethical principles.

Google has now established an innovative unit, dedicated to advancing AI technology. Working in collaboration with other areas of Google product development, this new department will strive to create cutting-edge AI products and research.

As an independent division of the former parent division of the tech giant, 'Google Research' will continue to pursue science-based advancements in computing and its related fields. Such investigations range from algorithm theory and security to quantum computing, health assessments, climate alteration, and Artificial Intelligence ethics.

Believing that the joining of two AI research labs will help shape the future of AI, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is confident that this move will enable teams to bring their world-class ideas into fruition with high-powered computing capabilities and plentiful resources in a responsible manner.

Demis Hassabis is of the opinion that the advances made by Google Brain and DeepMind in terms of research have paved the way for today's AI ecosystem, ranging from deep reinforcement learning to transformers. With their new union, they will continue this work to create new AI products and innovations that will undoubtedly change the world profoundly.

Through the years, Google and DeepMind have worked together to create some remarkable advancements. Among them are AlphaGo and AlphaFold - one of which is known for its victory against professional Go players, while the other is capable of accurately predicting protein structures. The two organizations collectively pioneered these breakthroughs.

Innovative approaches in machine learning such as word2vec, WaveNet, sequence-to-sequence models, distillation, and deep reinforcement learning have been incredibly impressive. Moreover, distributed systems and software frameworks like TensorFlow and JAX have made it possible to express, train, and deploy large-scale ML models with ease.

In a landmark deal of 2014, DeepMind was snapped up by tech giant, 'Big G' - as it's known in the industry - for an eye-watering $500 million.

In a recent shift, Jeff Dean has been appointed as chief scientist for both of the renowned research divisions at Alphabet - namely, the well-established branch of 'Research' and the newer venture 'DeepMind'. His new role calls for setting the long-term direction of artificial intelligence investigation within the company as well as supervising some major projects related to AI technology. Chief among these is an array of ambitious multimodal AI models.

Alphabet and Google have sent a clear signal that they are devoted to pushing forward with research from Google Brain and DeepMind. As competition for artificial intelligence intensifies, Google DeepMind is sure to speed up AI development and bring about amazing creations that will influence humanity.