DeepMind is holding back release of AI research to give Google an edge

Google’s artificial intelligence arm DeepMind has been holding back the release of its world-renowned research, as it seeks to retain a competitive edge in the race to dominate the burgeoning AI industry.

Three former researchers said the group was most reluctant to share papers that reveal innovations that could be exploited by competitors, or cast Google’s own Gemini AI model in a negative light compared with others.

The changes represent a significant shift for DeepMind, which has long prided itself on its reputation for releasing groundbreaking papers and as a home for the best scientists building AI.

Meanwhile, huge breakthroughs by Google researchers—such as its 2017 “transformers” paper that provided the architecture behind large language models—played a central role in creating today’s boom in generative AI.