Facebook to Open New Artificial Intelligence Lab in Montreal
September 15 2017 - 2:22PM
Dow Jones News
By David George-Cosh
Facebook Inc. said Friday it will open a new artificial
intelligence research lab in Montreal, marking the latest move by a
company to invest in that type of technology in Canada.
Facebook's research lab will be staffed with a team of 20 to 30
people and led by Joelle Pineau, a computer science professor at
Montreal's McGill University and a leading AI researcher, the
company announced at an event in Montreal Friday, attended by
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The lab will be Facebook's fourth artificial intelligence
research facility, joining a broader pool of 100 researchers in
Paris and New York and the company's headquarters in Menlo Park,
Calif., the company said. The Montreal lab will focus on developing
research on reinforcement learning and dialogue systems, which is a
way of teaching machines the complex relationship between taking
actions and the various potential results.
In addition to the lab, Facebook will invest 7 million Canadian
dollars (US$5.75 million) in the broader Montréal-based AI
community through partnerships with the Canadian Institute for
Advanced Research and the Montréal Institute for Learning
Algorithms, the company said.
"We think the talent we can attract will bring valuable
expertise and new perspectives to our work, and under Dr. Pineau's
leadership, we will continue to invest in this team and in the
Canadian research community as a whole," said Yann LeCun, director
of AI research at Facebook, in a statement.
News of the research lab was first reported by The Wall Street
Journal on Thursday.
Mr. Trudeau -- a Montreal native and graduate of McGill
University -- said technology giants such as Facebook and others
are increasingly choosing Canadian cities as their home away from
home.
"With its strong research community and well-educated workforce,
Canada is the right place to shape the future -- a future where
things like AI and deep learning help create jobs, improve our
quality of life, and generate new opportunities for the middle
class and those who want to join it," Mr. Trudeau said.
Facebook's investment in Montreal comes within a year after
Alphabet Inc.'s Google opened a new artificial intelligence lab
dedicated to deep learning, a type of machine-learning
technology.
Facebook is relying more on artificial intelligence to improve
its capacity to identify and block posts that include terrorist
imagery, child pornography and fake news. Government officials in
Germany and France have criticized social media for their slow
response to removing fake news and hate speech.
Google last year provided $3.33 million in grant funding to the
Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, an academic lab based
at the University of Montreal that focuses on machine learning.
Microsoft Corp. acquired Maluuba, an AI startup based in
Montreal, in January for an undisclosed sum. The tech company's
venture fund took a stake in Element AI, a Montreal-based startup,
in 2016.
Canada's Liberal government has allocated C$125 million to
develop AI research across the country and attract high-tech firms
and make up some of the jobs lost when factories closed up shop
since the recession of 2008. Part of that funding went to the
Vector Institute, a Toronto-based organization aimed at luring top
minds in the AI field. It has also drawn investment from Google and
Uber Technologies Inc.
"These measures are part of our ambitious, pragmatic plan to
help prepare all Canadians for the good jobs of the new economy,"
Mr. Trudeau said.
--Paul Vieira contributed to this article.
Write to David George-Cosh at david.george-cosh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 15, 2017 14:07 ET (18:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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