谷歌最近在搞什么大事？

谷歌母公司Alphabet旗下X实验室里，神秘的重大项目负责人是阿斯特罗·特勒，专门负责研究全球最重要的问题。眼下研究重点是最让21世纪公司头疼的问题：如何挡住想尽办法潜入网络盗取敏感信息的黑客们。

为了帮助企业赢得先机，特勒的实验室研发了一项工具，可以帮助企业IT部门处理日渐增多的网络安全问题。该软件属于Chronicle项目，主要利用机器学习技术过滤虚假警报信息，技术人员可以集中处理最严重的问题。

如果你认为这比起X实验室旗下其他项目有点小儿科，那你就错了。X实验室八年前成立以来，已孵化出多项新创意：自动驾驶汽车、可监测血糖水平的隐形眼镜，以及向覆盖地区提供互联网信号的巨大热气球等。

更迅速也更精准的警报自动过滤系统还只是解决大问题的一小步，真正的目标是搭建特勒称的“免疫系统”，届时可以帮企业在黑客实施攻击之前就预测并做好相应防护。Chronicle的算法可以过滤企业的海量数据和既有用户安全工具产生的信息。一段时间后，系统就能准确判断何时该预警，何时该忽略。

“这套系统就像自动化的夏洛克·福尔摩斯，”特勒表示。“一开始是年轻版的福尔摩斯，之后会逐渐成熟。”

X项目出现商业化应用的前景后，一般会从实验阶段“升级”为独立的公司。今年1月宣布的Chronicle就是第三个单飞但保留在Alphabet旗下的项目，不过对于未参与测试服务的外界公司，该软件仍在保密状态。

Alphabet首席财务官露丝·波拉特明确表明，希望X项目更注重盈利，不能只为了出风头。据研究机构顾能预计，全球信息安全市场规模约为930亿美元，盈利应不成问题。此外，信息安全与Alphabet收入多元化，与微软和亚马逊加强竞争的整体策略相符。

比尔·库格伦担任红杉资本合伙人，也是谷歌前工程经理，他表示网络安全领域的初创企业众多，任何一家都很难脱颖而出。他认为，电脑安全领域销售成功与否取决于多任务处理情况。Chronicle若想获得竞争优势，可以利用Alphabet充沛的资金降低价格。“市面上很多安全产品都太贵了，”库格伦表示。用户总是希望有更实惠的选择。

特勒相信Chronicle能从竞争激烈的市场中杀出一条路。他表示，到最后网络安全就是个猫鼠游戏。真正能进步的公司会“扮演好猫的角色，让电脑系统更安全。”毕竟，谁愿意当老鼠呢？（财富中文网）

本文另一版本将刊载于2018年3月出版的《财富》杂志，标题为《贴近实用的大项目》

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

Astro Teller, leader of Alphabet’s secretive moonshot factory, X, focuses on solving the planet’s biggest problems. And there’s a big one that every 21st-century business grapples with every day: hackers who relentlessly try to infiltrate computer networks and steal sensitive information.

In an effort to help corporations gain the upper hand, Teller’s skunkworks has created a tool intended to solve a common complaint in IT departments—an overwhelming number of cyber-security alerts. The software, part of a project dubbed Chronicle, uses machine learning to filter out false alarms so that technicians can concentrate on only the most important warnings.

If that sounds pedestrian compared with X’s other moonshots, you wouldn’t be wrong. Since its founding eight years ago, X has incubated some far-out ideas: self-driving cars, contact lenses that measure blood sugar, and giant balloons that beam Internet connections to everyone below.

But faster and more accurate automated alert filtering is a small step toward tackling a far larger challenge—to develop what Teller describes as an “immune system” that could help organizations predict and defend against cyberattacks before they infiltrate a network. Chronicle’s algorithms sift through massive volumes of corporate data along with information generated by the customer’s existing security tools. Over time, the system learns what to flag and what to ignore.

“It’s like automating Sherlock Holmes,” Teller says. “We’re going to get a teenage Sherlock Holmes at some point, and then he’ll get more sophisticated over time.”

When X projects show enough commercial promise, they “graduate” from being mere experiments into independent companies. Chronicle, announced in January, is the third to graduate and remain within Alphabet, although its software remains under wraps for companies not involved in tests of the service.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, has made no secret of the fact that she wants X to tackle projects that have a better chance of turning a profit and don’t just grab headlines. Software for what Gartner estimates is a $93 billion global information security market certainly fits the bill, aligning with a broader Alphabet strategy to diversify its revenue and become a stronger business technology rival to Microsoft and Amazon.

Bill Coughran, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a former Google engineering executive, says the sheer number of security startups makes it challenging for any one company to stand out. A company’s success in selling computer security depends on its software handling many tasks well, he argues. One way for Chronicle to get a leg up in the market would be to use Alphabet’s deep pockets to undercut the competition on price. “There are a number of security products that are too expensive,” Coughran says. Customers are always on the hunt for cheaper options.

Teller believes Chronicle can thrive in a crowded field. In the end, cybersecurity remains a cat-and-mouse game, he says. Those that make real progress will “get computers a lot more involved in doing the cat part.” After all, who wants to be a mouse?

A version of this article appears in the March 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “A Moonshot for Modest Times.”