NEW DELHI: Google has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) research lab in Bengaluru to "tackle big problems", the technology giant announced on Thursday during its fifth edition of Google for India event. Other key announcements at the flagship event included its partnership with BSNL to bring "fast, reliable and secure public WiFi to villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar" and with National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) for their Skill India programme to make entry-level jobs easily discoverable online. According to Google, the lab will be led by Manish Gupta, a SEM (Society for Experimental Mechanics) fellow. Director of Harvard Centre for Computation & Society, professor Milind Tambe, will serve as director of AI for social good. "Professor Tambe will build a research programme around applying AI to tackle big problems in areas like healthcare, agriculture, or education," the company said.

Facebook has become the latest technology company to dig into Montreal's burgeoning artificial intelligence sector, announcing the opening of a research lab in the city Friday. The lab, known as FAIR Montreal, is headed by Joelle Pineau, a professor in McGill University's computer science department and co-director of Reasoning and Learning Lab. The social media giant follows Google and Microsoft in establishing AI roots in Montreal. The lab is open and ready for business, with the first researchers already setting up shop in a new building. Pineau finished her degree in the United States and came back to Montreal against the advice of some of her American colleagues, who felt it would hinder her ability to do world-class research.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT recently announced the launch of Microsoft Research AI lab. It will focus on obstacles faced in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Based at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, WA, the research lab will involve more than 100 scientists related to various subfields including natural language processing, machine learning, visual perception and decision making, among others. Notably, the AI technologies used today are dedicated to specific tasks. Microsoft's idea is to combine these and form a single AI technology that will have a cognitive approach.