Eric Schmidt says that Google DeepMind is 'one of the greatest British success stories of the modern age'

Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt says that Google DeepMind, the London artificial intelligence company that Google acquired in 2014 for $500 million (£352 million), is "one of the greatest British success stories of the modern age."

Schmidt praised the company at the Startup Grind Europe conference in London, saying that the inventions produced by the team in King's Cross are "really historic."

After being acquired by Google, DeepMind has been put to work implementing artificial intelligence throughout Google, including on its search product.

But DeepMind has also been developing its own artificial intelligence algorithm, and even tested it out against one of the world's greatest players of the board game Go. DeepMind's AI won the competition 4-1. The contest proved so popular that there was reportedly a global shortage of Go boards following the event.

Another public sign of DeepMind's development has been the company's work on machine learning. DeepMind developed AI that eventually taught itself how to play classic arcade games like "Pong" or "Space Invaders."

Business Insider reported in May that as part of the sale to Google, DeepMind chose to kill off a fashion e-commerce site named KITSEE. The product used AI to recommend clothes for people to wear, but it never made it to launch.