DeepMind To Open First International AI Research Lab in Canada

In a big move for the AI community, artificial intelligence research company DeepMind will open its first international research lab outside the United Kingdom later this month.

Acquired by Google in 2014, DeepMind is an Alphabet-owned artificial intelligence company.

Based in Edmonton, the new lab, to be called DeepMind Alberta, will have close ties to the University of Alberta and demonstrates DeepMind’s commitment to accelerating Canada’s AI research community.

DeepMind is on a scientific mission to push the boundaries of AI, developing programs that can learn to solve complex problems without being taught how.

DeepMind Alberta will open with 10 employees and the team will be led by UAlberta computing science professors Richard Sutton, Michael Bowling, and Patrick Pilarski. All three, who will remain with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute at UAlberta, will also continue teaching and supervising graduate students at the university to further foster the Canadian AI talent pipeline and grow the country’s technology ecosystem.

The DeepMind Alberta announcement is the latest in a slate of AI-related successes for UAlberta. The recent major funding infusion via the federal government’s Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy strengthens the Alberta government’s 15-year investment of more than $40 million.