The Chinese company Huawei and the University of California, Berkeley have decided to enter into a partnership to develop artificial intelligence (AI) that will apply to our daily lives and better contribute to society. Huawei will invest $1 million into the new research partnership.
Huawei’s research unit Noah’s Ark Laboratory will set up the partnership between it and the UC Berkeley’s Artificial intelligence Research (BAIR) lab. The Noah’s Ark Laboratory is known for its specialization in AI, machine learning, and data mining.
Together, both units will be working on subjects like computer vision, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning to bring advancements made in AI out of the laboratory and into the hands of people. The focus will on creating the AI that is functional (rather than most intelligent) and can contribute to improve the lives of the people. If researchers get success in their work, the developments made will be implemented into Huawei’s software and electronic devices, including tablets and smartphones.
“The two parties believe that this strategic partnership will fuel the advancement of AI technology and create completely new experiences for people, thus contributing greatly to society at large,” Huawei said.
Lots of basic large-scale computing projects from bots to search engines use machine learning. New research in computer vision is being applied in areas like augmented reality, virtual reality, facial recognition, and self-driving applications. Similarly, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana are based on natural language processing.
However, some areas in AI are still in an early phase. Reinforcement learning is one such area which is still under initial research phase and helps other AI systems to make better decisions. Huawei could potentially get benefited in this area by collaborating with UC Berkeley directly.
According to experts, the next generation of devices and services from tech companies will incorporate advanced AI, and the challenge for companies like Huawei will be how to keep themselves ahead in the race. Competitors like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook are working hard in association with universities, grabbing talent coming out of universities as well as snapping up companies to advance their in-house work.
In 2014, Google announced a partnership with Oxford University to fund AI research there. Apple also acquired a startup Faceshift last year. Amazon is also organizing university competitions to generate interesting ideas in AI.
The UC Berkeley is already working with 11 other companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Adobe, Amazon, Yahoo Japan, Nvidia, Intel, Siemens, as “industrial partners”.
Huawei’s Noah’s Ark lab was created about four years back and is part of the Huawei’s effort to put some $8.1 billion annually into Research and Development.
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