China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has opened a research center in Singapore focused on artificial intelligence, in partnership with the city-state's Nanyang Technological University.
Alibaba said in a Feb. 28 post on its company news site Alizila that the collaboration would be a "multimillion-dollar per year" investment. It is the e-commerce giant's first joint research institute to be located outside China.
The Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute will have an initial team of about 50 scientists and engineers involved in AI research to develop real-life applications for homes, retail, healthcare and transportation.
The center will utilize NTU's research in human-centered AI technology, which enables machines to exhibit characteristics such as emotions and values. Alibaba will contribute its efforts in natural language processing, computer vision, machine learning and cloud computing.
"Meanwhile, we can also tap into our existing business resources in the region, to magnify the impact of the technology developed, making solutions affordable and accessible to all," Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Jeff Zhang said in a statement.
Alibaba and NTU plan to increase the number of researchers at the institute over the next five years, in addition to encouraging collaboration with academic and private-sector partners.
