>I recently heard someone make the argument that while a lot of the Google AI tech is impressive, they haven't really been able to build something that feels th

>I recently heard someone make the argument that while a lot of the Google AI tech is impressive, they haven't really been able to build something that feels that useful as a product in the real world. It's an impressive tech demo for sure at Google's conferences, but once the tech makes it to Android, they don't really become used all that much. As you mention above when talking about Google+ etc. Google have not really been great at doing products in the past (though they've definitely gotten better). But the key is that they are getting themselves onto a virtuous cycle for their AI development - they're attracting brilliant minds, which leads to bigger better breakthroughs (like Alpha Go and driverless cars) which leads to great PR and attracts more talent and customers/consumers of their AI. So what if Google doesn't build AI products, what if AI is the product or platform. What if AI is the future to most things (e.g. automation of routine labour or optimisation for business operations through machine learning). If Google can position themselves to be at the heart of all of this, they can let other developers and companies build on top of that to deliver the useful products. Just like they've done with Android. How will they monetize that? No idea, in my mind I imagine using consultants or licensing fees but that doesn't feel very "Googley"....