Tencent sets up new AI Lab in Seattle, appoints new Deputy Director

Tencent Holdings, provider of Internet value-added services in China, has announced the opening of a new AI Lab in Seattle to drive its research on speech recognition and natural language processing. The company opened its first Lab last year in Shenzhen with more than 50 researchers and 200 engineers. The Seattle lab will look into practical applications and fundamental research of AI as well as try and develop the creative and decision making capabilities of AI. The company has also appointed Dr Yu Dong as the Deputy Director of the AI Lab at Seattle. The former Microsoft scientist, Dong, will oversee the operations and management of the Lab. “Dr. Yu Dong is an expert on speech recognition and deep learning. We are delighted to welcome Dr. Yu, and are confident that his addition to the team will serve to further strengthen Tencent’s AI technology,” said Dr. Zhang Tong, Executive Director of AI Lab.

“We hope that AI Lab will become more than a laboratory, but a connector. By bringing together the world’s leading experts in the field, we hope to further drive fundamental research on AI to expand its influence and enhance its practicality.”

Dr. Yu Dong, Deputy Director of AI Lab stated that over the past decade, Tencent has accumulated abundant experience in application scenarios, developed a massive data bank, established powerful computing capabilities, and built an outstanding team of technology experts; all which have helped form the foundation of in-depth research and AI application at Tencent today.

“With the establishment of the AI Lab in Seattle, I believe that there will be more top talent joining AI Lab to help further promote AI development around the world.”

Tencent, which is the company behind QQ, WeChat, Qzone, among others, will not be the only Chinese tech conglomerate in the US. Companies like Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and Baidu have also built their base in the country.