The lab will be helmed by Joelle Pineau, a computer science professor at McGill University interested in learning and the co-director of the university's Reasoning and Learning Lab. LeCun says that, like other Facebook AI research labs, the Montreal site will engage with research communities via publications, conferences and collaborations. "Montreal already has an existing fantastic academic AI community, an exciting ecosystem of startups, and promising government policies to encourage AI research. We are excited to become part of this larger community, and we look forward to engaging with the entire ecosystem and helping it continue to thrive," said LeCun.