The new Samsung backed facility will be located in Toronto’s downtown core at MaRS Discovery District. The aim is for the new center to tap into the burgeoning Toronto technology scene and assist with shaping the city’s connected future. This will be achieved through accelerating the adoption of intelligence across multiple devices. The types of device enhancements will cover the spectrum from household appliances to cars.
The MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation which was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2000. The core focus is to commercialize publicly funded medical research, together with other technologies, chiefly through public-private partnerships. To date it is estimated that startup companies emerging from MaRS have created over 4,000 jobs and raised over $750 million in capital investments.
Commenting on the new Samsung center, Dr. Larry Heck, who is the Co-Head of Global Artificial Intelligence Research, said: “Toronto and the GTA are epi-centres of machine learning and one of the world’s foremost hubs for AI research and development. Home to not only world-class talent, but also some of the most innovative start-ups in the artificial intelligence field.”
She adds: “We are looking forward to contributing to this vibrant AI community and to help push the field forward as we move towards our goal of making all Samsung connected devices intelligent by 2020.”
Heck goes on to explain that an important interest for Samsung is with language understanding and computer vision technologies. It is hoped balancing these will make the gap between the device user and the device/service smoother, in relation to smartphones, interactive televisions, appliances, cars and so on. For this end, drawing on Canadian ingenuity and innovation will be key.
The development follows other recent centers established by Samsung, including one in Russia and one in Cambridge, U.K. The latter venture was covered by Lisa Cumming for Digital Journal, see: “Samsung set to open AI research lab in Cambridge.”
