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by mtgx
3690 days ago
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I don't know if this is the reason, but I think Google started getting a lot more paranoid about hoarding patents when Apple and Microsoft started going after Android OEMs in the early years. Google didn't really have any "counter-offensive" patent strategy then, which is why it went on a patent buying spree back then, although most of the available ones also got bought by Apple and Microsoft through Rockstar and so on. So best case scenario, Google doesn't want to be caught with its pants down regarding patents. Worst case, it wants to "own" deep learning, so that nobody can really compete with them. Although I think that would be a little in conflict with their strategy to open source tensorflow. To really figure out on which side Google is now playing we'll have to see how they respond to future patent reforms, and whether they join Microsoft and IBM to once again kill those reforms, or support the reforms to abolish software patents or drastically reduce their damage. |
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Only a little. Releasing all the models and frameworks helps advance the field, helps with finding people to recruit, helps with integrating them into teams, and so on. This is why so many giants find it in their own self-interest to contribute to FLOSS these days.
Competition-wise, as is often said, Google has all the data. If for every deep learning advance they make $1 and the competitors make $0.95, they win. Patents here are quite helpful: you may make a neat translation app using some new tricks, and then discover when you go to commercialize it that oops, Google's patented 'using neural nets for translation'. Then you either quit, get sued, get bought, or give them most of your profits.