Google plans to open AI lab in Beijing
Google Inc plans to open an artificial intelligence lab in Beijing, although users are not able to access the search giant on the Chinese mainland, Shanghai Daily learned today.
Google is recruiting machine learning engineers and cloud machine learning engineers in Beijing and preparing for the new AI lab, said industry sources and websites including LinkedIn.
Google was not available to comment on the issue today.
Even though Google’s general service is not available in the mainland, Chinese engineers and startups are using Google’s AI platform, called Tensorflow, to develop and test applications and products, Shanghai Daily learned.
AI is seen as a major catalyst to boost economies and innovation in the next decade, and China is no exception having adopted AI as a national strategy.
At a summit in May, Google said that it would strengthen AI research in China and Eric Schmidt, chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent firm, noted that AI, which covers voice and picture recognition, machine translation and self-driving, can be applied to energy, health care, government and other sectors.
Google's AI AlphaGo defeated top Go player Ke Jie from China in human-versus-machine matches.