Google launches an AI research centre in China

Google has launched an AI research center in Beijing, China, their first such center in Asia. Focused on basic AI research, the centre will consist of a team of AI researchers in Beijing, supported by Google China’s engineering teams.

The AI lab is being opened even as the US search firm’s products remain blocked in the country. However, the company still has hundreds of staff in China which work on its international services. Google says that its Beijing-based team will work with AI colleagues in Google offices across the world, including New York, Toronto, London and Zurich.

“I believe AI and its benefits have no borders. Whether a breakthrough occurs in Silicon Valley, Beijing or anywhere else, it has the potential to make everyone’s life better. As an AI first company, this is an important part of our collective mission. And we want to work with the best AI talent, wherever that talent is, to achieve it,” wrote Dr Fei-Fei Li, Chief Scientist at Google Cloud, in a blog post announcing plans for the China lab.

Google’s search engine is banned in the Chinese market along with its app store, email and cloud storage services. But despite that the US company has made some visible improvements, most recently by collaborating with local government on the AI summit in the town of Wuzhen. It has relaunched Google Translate as a Chinese-language mobile app in the country too.

Also, this year Google held a Go tournament in cooperation with local authorities in eastern China, pitching its AI against Chinese world champion Go player Ke Jie.