谷歌：AI进军互联网核心技术

Google本周三宣布将任命原人工智能部门研究主管John Giannandrea，负责领导该公司旗下最重要的搜索引擎业务，显示互联网的核心技术正发生巨大变革。具体来说，新算法可以“理解”相似的词语和短语，因为它会对这些相似的词语进行编码，以便搜索引擎“看懂”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

algorithm算法['ælgərɪð(ə)m]

deluge泛滥['deljuːdʒ]

wrestled斗争['res(ə)l]

foreseeable可预测的[fɔː'siːəbl]

Himalayas喜马拉雅山脉[hɪ'mɑljəz]

Google puts AI expert in charge of its search algorithms （558words）

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Google has put an artificial intelligence expert in charge of its search algorithms, signalling a sea change in one of the core technologies of the internet that may ultimately give intelligent machines the job of finding and sorting information for humans.

The search company on Wednesday named John Giannandrea, an expert in machine learning, to run the engineering group that devises its ranking algorithms, the core technology for making sense of the deluge of information on the internet.

He replaces Amit Singhal, an Indian engineer who oversaw a rewrite of Google's ranking technology after joining 15 years ago. He has since headed its search engineering efforts as the company has consolidated its grip on internet search for most of the world and wrestled with the new approaches to search forced by things such as the rise of smartphone apps.

For Google, Mr Singhal's departure is as significant as the departure of design chief Sir Jony Ive would be for Apple, said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land and a long-time analyst of the search industry.

He called Mr Singhal the “guiding force” behind the Google search engine, which is still the main source of the company's profits, and an “orchestra leader” who had succeeded in maintaining the quality of the search results as Google has grappled with the mass of new online information and new ways of searching.

His departure coincides with a wave of investment in artificial intelligence at Google, both to boost the overall quality of its core products as well as support a push into newer fields such as driverless cars and robotics.

The projects Mr Giannandrea has been in charge of at Google include RankBrain, a neural network — modelled on how layers of neurons in the brain interact — that tries to use machine intelligence to improve the ranking of search results without the intervention of human programmers.

Despite the growing importance of AI, machines are not likely to seize control of Google's search algorithms for the foreseeable future, said Mr Sullivan.

The technology has been put to use by Google to better understand what searchers are looking for, he said, but it is still a stretch for it to predict which piece of information people will find most useful. Nevertheless, the rise of an AI expert to head the rankings group points to an underlying shift in the technology that could one day see much of the job of search ranking left to machines, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at the Local Search Association in the US. The technology shift might one day leave Google's search engineers facing the risk of being put out of work by intelligent machines as workers in other fields, Mr Sterling said, though he added that there was always likely to be some level of human oversight.

“There will always be some sort of human oversight or spot-checking,” Mr Sterling said. “There will always be someone in the control room.”

Mr Singhal has long used the fictional intelligent computer on Star Trek as the model for the perfect search engine. In a post on Google+ announcing he was leaving the company, he said he had first dreamt of the idea when growing up in the Himalayas. “My dream Star Trek computer is becoming a reality, and it is far better than what I ever imagined,” he added.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the core technology for making sense of the deluge of information?

A.scientific management

B.computer language

ranking algorithms

D.recursive identification algorithms

答案(1)

2.Why Mr.Singhal was called “orchestra leader”?

A.taking up the main source of the Google's profits

B.Sir Jony's best friend

C.pushing into newer fields

D.maintaining the quality of the search results

答案(2)

3.Which one of the following is wrong about AI and search algorithms?

A.The technology is aim to understand what searchers are looking for.

B.Machines will seize control of Google's search algorithms.

C.It is still a stretch for it to predict useful information.

D.There was always likely to be some level of human oversight.

答案(3)

4.Where is Singhal's main source of inspiration about intelligent computer?

A.fiction

B.music

C.movie

D.legend

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：C.ranking algorithms

解释：相关排序技术是搜索引擎结果处理的一个核心技术，其排序算法的优劣直接影响查准率。

(2)答案：D.maintaining the quality of the search results

解释：Singhal领导期间在保证了谷歌在激烈竞争中保持住有质量的搜索结果。

(3)答案：B.Machines will seize control of Google's search algorithms.

解释：机器不可能完全主导这一领域。

(4)答案：C.movie

解释：即将离职的Singhal在辞职公开信中表示自己一直以设计出“星际迷航”中的电脑作为梦想，如今这一梦想“即将成为现实，而且要比我此前想像的更好。”