Nikkei serial profiles Google DeepMind's Jonah Alben: WaveNet was once called 'absolutely impossible'
heiga_zen · x · 2026-10-02
Nikkei's "Shokunin Hiroku" column ran a multi-part serial profiling Jonah Alben (全炳河), a key figure supporting Google's AI division from Google DeepMind's Tokyo team. Highlights: his "try it first" ethos from technical-college days and Cambridge years; joining GDM when the tiny Tokyo team lacked investment and sat at a timezone disadvantage; winning a speech-synthesis competition; pushing WaveNet through internal skepticism that it was "absolutely impossible" — ultimately changing the world of sound; and navigating the generative AI era where even Jeff Dean became a target to surpass.
Related event: Nikkei Serializes Memoir of Google AI Veteran Byon-Myung-Ho(2 posts)→
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