Spam and biology, a match made in heaven

January 23, 2008

IBM has used bioinformatics software for spam detection, and Microsoft is working on life science problems using anti-spam software. Looks like these might be more than just one-offs. In a CNET article on Xooglers, found via John Battelle, I was intrigued to read about a “yet-to-be-named research lab in Palo Alto to develop artificial-intelligence software for the fields of biotech and medicine” that is being opened by Georges Harik, one of Google’s first 10 engineers, and former director of new products. Georges has a background with genetic algorithms, and on working on some of the biggest intelligence systems within Google (Adsense and the Gmail anti-spam system). The goal is to release the results of the lab as open source software available to the community. The non-profit has been partially funded by Google.org, while Georges is putting in $100K of his own money.

Technorati Tags: Xooglers, Google, Artificial Ingelligence, Life Science