Google.org Pledges $20M for AI Science Research

With the aim to assist scientists and researchers in discovering the next big scientific discoveries through artificial intelligence (AI), Google is contributing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding project.

During a fireside chat at the closed-door AI for Science Forum in London today, Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, made the announcement. It is part of a larger effort by Big Tech to win over young innovators and startups. This strategy has included acquisitions, equity investments, and cloud partnerships, some of which have drawn regulatory attention.

However, money, processing power, cross-domain knowledge, and access to infrastructure, including basic datasets like the Protein Data Bank that drove the work with AlphaFold, are all necessary for scientists to use AI to allow the next generation of scientific discoveries.

For this reason, Google.org today announced $20 million in funding to support academic and nonprofit organizations worldwide that are using AI to address increasingly complex problems at the intersections of various scientific disciplines. This announcement was made at the first AI for Science Forum, which was organized by Google DeepMind and the Royal Society. Promising areas include materials science, sustainability, experimental biology, and the study of uncommon and neglected diseases.

This most recent announcement, made through Google’s 19-year-old charitable arm Google.org, is unique in that it focuses on non-equity support for educational and non-profit organizations around the world. However, like other Big Tech financing and cooperation programs, this will help Google gain the respect of some of the top scientists by giving them direct financial support and infrastructure to support their work. This puts Google in a strong position to attract new clients in the future, especially those that are just starting out and working on projects that call for a lot of AI computing power, which Google can supply.

This strategy is not exclusive to Google; only last week, AWS, the cloud leader from Amazon, released $110 million in grants and credits to entice AI researchers to join its ecosystem. A $20 million fund to help think tanks and academic institutions expand their AI expertise and a fund of a comparable scale to operate a generative AI accelerator program for NGOs are just two examples of Google’s recent similar contributions in the AI space.

Maggie Johnson, Google VP and worldwide head of Google.org, stated in an accompanying blog post that the one thing that successful applicants should have in common is that they will be employing “AI to address increasingly complex problems at the intersections of different disciplines of science.”

Research on rare and neglected diseases, experimental biology, materials science, and sustainability are among the areas that exhibit potential, according to Johnson.

A Google representative told TechCrunch that they don’t have a specific goal for how many projects they want to fund in response to some follow-up questions. However, they emphasized that they do not intend to spread little pockets of money around; rather, they want the financing to be “significant enough to fuel scientific breakthroughs.” Rather, it will probably be distributed among no more than 15 organizations, with plans to choose the beneficiaries and distribute the funds by 2026.

It is important to note that DeepMind, Google’s AI division, has had a successful year. In March, Hassabis, one of the three founders of DeepMind, received a knighthood for his contributions to AI. Then, in October, Hassabis and John Jumper, the director of DeepMind (shown together above), shared half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on AlphaFold, which has sped up research in the areas of bioengineering, drug discovery, and illness diagnosis.

In essence, the goal of this newest fund is to continue that momentum.

In a stock statement provided to TechCrunch, Hassabis stated, “I think artificial intelligence will help scientists and researchers achieve some of the greatest breakthroughs of our time.” “With the launch of our $20 million fund, we hope to inspire others to join us in funding this important work, spark renewed excitement for the power of science and AI, and encourage further collaboration between the public and private sectors.”

To find and announce companies, we will collaborate with executives from our Google DeepMind, Google Research, and other AI-focused teams as well as outside specialists. Additionally, we will offer pro bono technical assistance from Google employees as well as $2 million in Google Cloud Credits.

Funding, technology, and teamwork have repeatedly combined to propel scientific advancement. We hope that other philanthropic, public, and private funders join us in investing in long-term, significant outcomes that demonstrate AI’s capacity to enable science at digital speed, and that this new funding helps foster more Nobel-level accomplishments that will enhance the lives of millions of people.