DeepMind announces ethics group to focus on problems of AI

Firm brings in advisers from academia and charity sector to 'help technologists put ethics into practice' in bid to help society cope with artificial intelligence

Deepmind, Google's London-based AI research sibling, has opened a new unit focused on the ethical and societal questions raised by artificial intelligence.

The new research unit will aim "to help technologists put ethics into practice, and to help society anticipate and direct the impact of AI so that it works for the benefit of all", according to the company, which hit headlines in 2016 for building the first machine to beat a world champion at the ancient Asian board game Go.