Chinese internet giant Tencent opens artificial intelligence lab in Seattle

Chinese tech titan Tencent has announced that it's opening a new artificial intelligence (AI) lab in Seattle, with speech recognition expert Dr. Yu Dong, formerly a principal researcher at Microsoft's Speech and Dialog Group, leading the initiative. The new lab, which was first rumored last month, will focus on both "fundamental research and practical application of artificial intelligence," according to a statement issued by the company, and will push to develop AI's "understanding, decision-making and creativity," while supporting Tencent's AI efforts across its range of businesses, which include gaming and social media. Tencent first launched an AI lab in Shenzhen, China last April, with a focus on machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, and natural language processing (NLP). According to the company, a number of its products already use technology created in the lab -- including its wildly popular WeChat messaging app. The Seattle AI hub will focus more on speech recognition and NLP.