Google Heads to Far East In China-AI Push

Google is deepening its push into China as it seeks an edge in one of technology's most competitive fields: artificial intelligence. The Alphabet unit will announce the opening of a new Beijing research facility on Wednesday during its second annual developers conference in Shanghai, the company says. The Google AI China Center will have a small group of researchers supported by several hundred China-based engineers. Google has been re-building its presence in China, where it defied the government in 2010 by refusing to self-censor search content and later had most of its services blocked. The U.S. giant has been ramping up hiring and promotion of its TensorFlow AI tools, features that Sundar Pichai, CEO at Google, highlighted when he visited the country earlier this month.