Google is to open a new artificial intelligence (AI) research centre in Africa. The centre, which will be based in Accra, Ghana, will bring together top machine learning researchers and engineers and will be dedicated to AI research and its applications.
“We’ve seen people across Africa do amazing things with the Internet and technology–for themselves, their communities and the world,” says Jeff Dean, Senior Fellow, Google AI. “Over the past 10 years in which Google has had offices in Africa, we’ve been excited to be a part of that transformation. Ultimately 10 million Africans will benefit from our digital skills training program with two million people having already completed the course, and we’re supporting 100 000 developers and over 60 tech startups through our Launchpad Accelerator Africa. We’re also adapting our products to make it easy for people to discover the best of the Internet, even on low-RAM smartphones or unstable network connections.
“In recent years we’ve also witnessed an increasing interest in machine learning research across the continent,” he says. “Events like Data Science Africa 2017 in Tanzania, the 2017 Deep Learning Indaba event in South Africa, and follow-on IndabaX events in 2018 in multiple countries have shown an exciting and continuing growth of the computer science research community in Africa.
“Today, we’re announcing a Google AI research center in Africa, which will open later this year in Accra, Ghana. We’ll bring together top machine learning researchers and engineers in this new center dedicated to AI research and its applications.
“We’re committed to collaborating with local universities and research centers, as well as working with policy makers on the potential uses of AI in Africa,” says Dean. “We’re excited to combine our research interests in AI and machine learning and our experience in Africa to push the boundaries of AI while solving challenges in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.”