South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co on Wednesday said it would set up its third-biggest research center for artificial intelligence (AI) in France.
The announcement was made by Samsung president and chief strategy officer Young Sohn during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Japanese group Fujitsu Ltd also announced it would set up a European AI research center in France, expanding the small research center that it already has in the country and transferring to it all of its researchers from elsewhere in Europe, Macron’s office said.
Fujitsu’s research center would work in partnership with the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation’s National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control.
Samsung’s new AI center would be the group’s third-biggest in the world after two in South Korea and the US and would eventually employ more than 100 researchers, the French president’s office said.
It would be headed by Luc Julia, the French researcher who invented Apple Inc’s voice-activated assistant Siri, and who has since moved to Samsung.
Until now, Samsung has employed only about 15 researchers at a small center in France. The announcements by Samsung and Fujitsu come as France ratchets up its ambitions to become a leading site for AI research.
Separately, G7 countries have agreed to a “common vision” for the development of AI, a Canadian minister said on Wednesday.
Officials met in Montreal for a jobs and innovation forum ahead of Canada’s hosting of the annual G7 Summit on June 8 and June 9 in La Malbaie, Quebec.
“G7 innovation ministers have agreed on some common approaches to AI and a list of best practices,” Canadian Minister of Social Development Jean-Yves Duclos told a news conference at the end of the talks.
This includes a “shared vision for human-centered AI,” a joint statement said.
Duclos said many, including those around the G7 table, have expressed concern over the hijacking and abuse of personal data on social network Facebook Inc.
Data is fundamental to AI because it allows computers to develop their own “intelligence” through a process known as machine learning or deep learning, he said.
The G7 nations must ensure that the nascent AI industry “brings to our societies and our economies the most significant benefits possible in the coming years,” while safeguarding privacy rights, Duclos said.
Ottawa offered to host an AI roundtable in the fall. It would bring together states, companies and researchers.
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