Google is opening an artificial intelligence (AI) research center in China. Focused on basic AI research, the research center will consist of a team of AI researchers in Beijing, supported by Google China’s engineering teams, says the company.

Google has already hired experts, and will be working to build the team in the months ahead. Along with Dr. Jia Li, Head of Research and Development at Google Cloud AI, Fei-Fei Li, Chief Scientist AI/ML, Google Cloud, will be leading and coordinating the research.

The Chinese AI research center is the company’s first such outfit in Asia; Google has similar AI research groups in New York, Toronto, London and Zurich. Ironically, the company’s search engine is not allowed to operate in China.

[Image courtesy: Google]