Google-owned DeepMind opens artificial intelligence lab at U of A

The Univ of Alberta is will become home to the first international research base for DeepMind outside of the UK. The London-based company will create a 10-person laboratory focused on reinforcement learning, a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) underpinning the university’s world-leading AI strength. The lab will be led by U of A researchers Richard Sutton, Michael Bowling and Patrick Pilarski — all of who will continue teaching and supervising graduate students —and complemented by a seven-person team. DeepMind Technologies Ltd was founded in 2010 by the University College London’s Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit that has achieved breakthroughs self-learning neural networks based on machine learning and systems neuroscience to create general-purposed learning algorithms. It received significant investments from several high-profile venture capital firms prior to its purchase by Google in 2014 for a reported US$650 million. It is now part of Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company following a 2016 restructuring. Edmonton joins Toronto and Montreal as one of three Canadian AI clusters that are being supported with funding from the $125-million Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy announced in the last federal Budget. It will also benefit from $40 million over 15 years that the Province in Alberta has invested in AI, mostly going to U of A.