Google announces its first AI lab in Bengaluru

The initiative also involves collaboration with scientific and academic institutions across the country.

BENGALURU: Global tech major Google on Thursday announced its first Artificial Intelligence lab
in India — Google Research India — which will be set up in Bengaluru. Google Research India will explore the solutions to the current challenges the country is facing by providing AI-backed solutions.
The initiative also involves collaboration with scientific and academic institutions across the country.

“At #GoogleForIndia today, we announced Google Research India — a new AI research team in Bangalore that will focus on advancing computer science & applying AI research to solve big problems in healthcare, agriculture, education, and more. #GoogleAI,” CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted.

Veteran technologist and Infosys Foundation Chair Professor at International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bangalore, Manish Gupta, will head Google’s ambitious AI research project in India whereas Milind Tambe, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Research in Computation and Society (CRCS) at Harvard University has been appointed as Director of AI for Social Good.

“The lab in Bangalore will be part of and support Google’s global network of researchers: participating in conferences, publishing research in scientific papers, and collaborating closely with one another...,”Jay Yagnik, Vice-President and Google Fellow, Google AI, said in a blog post. 

‘AI has potential to improve our lives drastically’

Vice-President and Google Fellow, Google AI, Jay Yagnik, wrote in a blog post, “We are exploring the potential for partnering with India’s scientific research community and academic institutions to help train top talent and support collaborative programs, tools and resources.” Yagnik said Google has supported fellowships and other academic endeavours of students in India in the past too.  

“AI has potential to improve our lives in a drastic way, whether it is doctors to improve the healthcare, scientists with new tools to understand scientific, or help first responders predict early warnings, AI will help us lead better, safer lives,” he added.Google’s AI lab in Bengaluru will help build advanced computer science and AI research with a team of researchers from across the country. The research will then be applied to tackle challenges in the fields of healthcare, agriculture and education as well as make apps and services used by people. Manish Gupta, the head of Google’s AI lab in India, however refused to divulge details about the inititaive.

As the global economy is moving fast towards adopting more AI-backed solutions, tech majors such as Google have set up their research labs to tackle the challenges enterprises are facing. In India, AI is fast emerging as a tool for digital transformation which has a potential to contribute $957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035, according to an Accenture report.

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