Google forms Montreal AI research group, gives $3.37 million grant to Yoshua Bengio, others

Google is announcing today that it's setting up a deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) research unit in its office in Montreal and giving $3.37 million in grant money to deep learning luminary Yoshua Bengio and seven other people associated with the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA). Bengio himself has previously received backing from Google, and from other companies as well -- namely, IBM, Samsung, and Intel. But the new grant is "bigger than any of the other funding we've received from private companies up until now," he said during an interview with VentureBeat. Bengio will not be formally allying himself with Google proper, because he wants to stay independent. "That's who I am," he said, "that's the choice I made that fits with my values, and I don't need to get the millions, I'm fine. My salary is very good, and I care more about how what I can do could have a positive impact for science, humanity, and for training the next generation [of researchers]."