With Samsung Electronics announcing its new artificial intelligence research lab based in Cambridge, it seems that the race is on across Europe to develop AI centers of excellence, with investments allocated to AI from both government and industry.Related:
With Samsung Electronics announcing its new artificial intelligence (AI) research lab based in Cambridge, it seems that the race is on across Europe to develop AI centers of excellence, with investments allocated to AI from both government and industry.The Samsung AI Center, Cambridge (SAIC-Cambridge) will be chaired by Professor Andrew Blake, a pioneer in the development of the theory and algorithms for computer vision and former director of Microsoft’s Cambridge Laboratory. With this center, Samsung aims to expand its R&D workforce in the U.K., including AI experts, from the current 250 to 400 in the near future.
This is part of a global plan from Samsung Research, the advanced R&D hub of Samsung Electronics. In addition to the U.K. hub, it also announced the opening of a new center in Toronto, Canada, and Moscow, Russia, bringing its total number of AI development centers to five, taking into account the ones that it already has in Seoul, Korea, and Silicon Valley in the U.S.
In Cambridge, U.K., the institute opens up new opportunities for fundamental research in AI and will facilitate greater cooperation with the U.K.’s academic community on the development of advanced technologies. Seunghwan Cho, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics, said, “This new artificial intelligence research center in Cambridge is one of the key milestones in the long-term strategy of the company. In this new world of connected devices and services based on AI, Samsung’s vision is to help people do their jobs and live their lives better.”
Because AI is being adopted in virtually every facet of today’s day-to-day lives and society, Samsung says, “We are at the brink of realizing near-exponential possibilities to make our lives easier through this powerful new technology.” Internet of Things (IoT) devices embedded with AI are expected to generate a vast array of data that can provide insights into lives, analyze complex usage patterns, and seamlessly enable intelligent services.
The press statement from Samsung says that the company chose the Cambridge area because it is a global epicenter of machine learning and one of the world’s foremost hubs for AI research and development, home not only to world-class talent but also some of the most well-renowned AI scholars with whom it will cooperate closely. The company will implement the results of its global network of AI research centers — including Cambridge — by building an open ecosystem of devices leveraging user-oriented AI to bring value back to users.
Professor Blake: a pioneer in computer vision
Professor Andrew Blake added, “The center’s research will help us to better understand human behavior, exploring areas like emotion recognition, and further expand the boundaries of user-centric communication to develop AI technologies that ultimately improve people’s lives.”
Professor Blake has a long history in electronics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence and was previously also a research director at The Alan Turing Institute. He founded the computer vision group at Microsoft in 1999, and in 2011, he and colleagues at Microsoft Research received the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for their machine-learning contribution to Microsoft Kinect’s human motion-capture. Previously, at Oxford University, he was a pioneer in the development of the theory and algorithms that make it possible for computers to behave as seeing machines.
Between 1978 and 1980, he was a scientist with the electro-optics group of Ferranti in Edinburgh. He is currently also a scientific advisor to FiveAI, a developer of autonomous vehicles, which plans to demonstrate trial passenger services in London in late 2019.
U.K. and EU AI research funding heats up
The Samsung news comes after both the European Union (EU) and the U.K. government both indicated their announcements to develop the best in AI research capabilities. In April, we highlighted how chipmakers are expanding R&D in France’s new AI push. Since then, both the U.K. and the EU have made indications of further investment in AI....MORE
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