Google Inc. granted to lead AI Research, chosen African country Ghana for its new Research centre. It will be located in Ghana’s capital Accra.
Google plans to build a new foundation for developing Ghana. A year after its CEO Sundar Pichai visited the country and promised to continue to raise company investment in the continent.
The company chose Accra for its center ignoring cities like Addis Ababa and Lagos which are more prominent technical hubs, more likely because the project will need the support of some local universities and research centers. Ghana is known for its young talents passing out of regarded universities, like Ashesi University and political stability.
It’s not companies first entry to the state. It has a launchpad accelerator Africa which provide quality training in computer science and till date, 10 million learners are benefited, almost 2 million completed the course. The company also lined up optical fiber system in the city recently which helped to provide strong internet connection signal to people of Accra.
However this research center will take few months to be effective, might later this year itself.
Today, we’re announcing a Google AI research center in Africa, which will open later this year in Accra, Ghana. We’ll bring together top machine learning researchers and engineers in this new center dedicated to AI research and its applications,” said Google in a blog.
African countries have played their full potential in the development of Artificial intelligence. Sophia, a social humanoid robot was partly developed in Ethiopia.
Google also planning to collaborate with local universities and research labs as well as policymakers to facilitate fast advancement of AI in the country. Company stated,
We’re committed to collaborating with local universities and research centers, as well as working with policy makers on the potential uses of AI in Africa. On a personal note, both of the authors have ties to Africa—Jeff spent part of his childhood in Uganda and Somalia, and Moustapha grew up in Senegal. As such, we’re excited to combine our research interests in AI and machine learning and our experience in Africa to push the boundaries of AI while solving challenges in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Google witnesses may Events like Data science Africa (2017) in Tanzania, the deep learning Idaba event in South Africa, and follow-on IdabaX events in 2018 in Africa. They claimed that with this opening Ghana will join cities like New York, Tokyo, mountain view California which have AI research centers.