Google looks to China for AI growth seven years after leaving the country

After pulling some of its core businesses out of China, seven years ago, search giant Google is making moves to reinstate itself in the country (See: Google's China exit to lead to loss for advertisers) .

Google was forced to withdraw from the country due to its heavy-handed control over the internet, which ran counter to the company's free internet stance. But, now with the growth of the online market in China, the US search giant may re enter the country.

Yesterday, it made a symbolically significant move towards working its way back, opening a China-based centre devoted to artificial intelligence.

According to commentators, the move comes as an acknowledgment of China's AI prowess, thanks to substantial government funding directed towards ensuring Beijing's presence in the technologies of the future.

According to Google, the centre would have a team of experts in Beijing, where the company employs a workforce of hundreds in research and development, as also other roles. The centre will be led by Fei-Fei Li, who runs Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Lab and heads the AI arm of Google's Cloud business, and Jia Li, the head of research and development for the AI division of Google Cloud.

Google's announcement, which came at a software developer conference in Shanghai, cited China's growing academic and technical contributions to AI. Google said the new centre would be ''working closely with the vibrant Chinese AI research community.''

"The science of AI has no borders, neither do its benefits," Fei-Fei Li, chief scientist at Google's AI business, said in a blog post yesterday announcing the new centre.

Google's initiative comes only months after Beijing made its ambitions for the rapidly developing technology clear, announcing plans to build a domestic AI industry worth nearly $150 billion in the coming years.

China intends to become a superpower in an industry that is expected to significantly shape the future of the human race.