Samsung nurtures AI as new growth engine
Electronics giant sets up AI research centers in UK, Russia, Canada
Samsung Electronics is expanding its reach into artificial intelligence (AI) by opening three new research centers in the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada.
Samsung Research, the firm’s research and development (R&D) hub for AI technology, said it held an opening ceremony for its AI Center Cambridge, Tuesday. It also plans to launch an AI center in Toronto, Thursday, and Moscow, May 29.
Samsung Electronics said this is to strengthen its AI technology as the company regards this as its next big growth area. The company has already opened two such centers in Seoul and Silicon Valley of the United States in November of last year and this January, respectively.
With the five AI research centers, it aims to secure a total of about 1,000 top people in the AI field — 400 from overseas and 600 from Korea — by 2020.
The company has actively adopted AI technology into its products. Consumers of home appliances made by Samsung can build their own at-home internet of things (IoT) ecosystem with Samsung’s AI voice recognition system Bixby.
Kim Hyun-suk, head of Samsung Electronics’ consumer electronics division and Samsung Research, said the group aims to become a game changer in AI sector.
“Samsung has a long history of pursuing innovation and we are excited to be bringing that same passion and technology leadership to AI,” Kim said during the opening ceremony of the new AI research center in Cambridge. “With the new AI centers and recruitment of leading experts in the field, our aim is to be a game changer for the AI industry.”
The U.K. AI center will be led by Andrew Blake, former research director of the Alan Turing Institute and laboratory director at Microsoft Research in Cambridge.
“Our research will help us to better understand human behavior while exploring areas like emotion recognition, and further expand the boundaries of user-centric communication to develop AI technologies that ultimately improve people’s lives,” Blake said.