Google has hired two Artificial Intelligence researchers to lead the machine learning unit of its Google Cloud platform.
Diane Greene who leads Google's Cloud platform announced the machine learning unit and the two new hires that'll helm it on Tuesday during an event in San Francisco.
The two new hires are Fei-Fei Li, director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford University and Jia Li, who previously headed research in Snap Inc., parent company of popular photo-sharing app Snapchat, Reuters reported.
Many analysts regard the two women as experts in the field of computer vision, an AI branch concerned with programming computers to recognize objects within images.
Google Cloud Platform Gains AI
During the event, Greene explained that the two new hires act as Google's commitment to integrating AI into its cloud computing business. The company plans to branch out from simply doing AI research into incorporating data into various Google Cloud products and services.
Greene said that Fei-Fei Li and Jia Li represent top-tier researchers and leaders in the ascendant surge and integration of AI into different platforms. Greene was also particularly excited that these two are women, noting the lack of females in the field of AI research, and in broad strokes, technology companies. Additionally, Greene explained why the two women were thrilled to leap into Google's turf.
"What really attracted these two people to come and be in Google Cloud is a chance to democratize machine learning and artificial intelligence," she said.
Fei-Fei Li And Jia Li
Before helming Snapchat's research innovations efforts, Jia Li was the head of Yahoo's Visual Computing and Learning Group. Her research areas include computer vision and machine learning, with the bulk of her work focusing on the application of machine learning methods to improve image retrieval results.
Fei-Fei Li is an associate professor at Stanford University's Computer Science department. Her work taps into computer vision, machine learning and cognitive neuroscience. In early 2015 she gave a TED talk concerning the process of teaching computers how to recognize images.
Jia Li is slated to begin her work at Google after the Thanksgiving holiday while Fei-Fei Li starts early 2017, a spokesperson at Google said.
More Companies Turning To AI
A number of companies are setting up specialized departments solely focused on AI research, hiring people to helm it, or acquiring AI startups to the dirty work. Some of these are Microsoft, Apple and Samsung.
Many factors propel companies to incur leaps and in turn, create this collective push of AI into everyday products and services. However varied these experiments or intents with AI may be, advancing technology can only mean great things for consumers in the end.
