Google’s new phone shows how a US$400mil bet is starting to pay off

The new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones are seen at a product launch event on October 4, 2017 at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, California. Google unveiled newly designed versions of its Pixel smartphone, the highlight of a refreshed line of devices which are part of the tech giant's efforts to boost its presence against hardware rivals. / AFP PHOTO / Elijah Nouvelage

New hardware launches from Alphabet Inc’s Google on Oct 4 showed how the acquisition of London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind might start to generate revenue rather than just research papers. 

Alphabet bought DeepMind for a reported US$400mil (RM1.69bil) in 2014. The firm has produced a steady stream of machine learning research – from teaching software to play the strategy game Go better than any human on the planet to creating artificial intelligence that mimicked the human brain's ability to dream and even imagine future actions.