Samsung to build its third-biggest AI R&D center in Paris

South Korean electronics giant Samsung will build a research and development center for artificial intelligence in Paris, which will be the company’s third-largest AI R&D base after Korea and the US, the company said Thursday.

The announcement was made after the French president’s office said Wednesday that President Emmanuel Macron held a meeting with Samsung’s strategy chief Young Sohn in Paris to discuss a plan to boost the country’s AI capacities.

An official announcement by the French government was to be made Thursday, local time. 

Samsung currently has an AI team of 15 people in Paris. It will increase the workforce to 50 by the end of the year and build an R&D facility for them.

The company plans to expand the organization to have more than 100 experts eventually.

Samsung currently runs AI R&D centers in Korea, the US and Canada.

The tech titan has said it will establish AI centers in various parts of the world to strengthen its AI capabilities with an ultimate goal of improving its platform Bixby.

“Our plan is to have AI hubs in major regions in order to capitalize on abilities of local experts and technologies in each region,” said a Samsung official. “It is still too early to say the new Paris center will focus on Bixby, but outcomes of all global research centers will be ultimately integrated to be applied for Bixby.”

Samsung has different levels of AI research organizations in charge of different areas of AI.

The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology focuses on machine learning and other fundamental technologies, while Samsung Research’s AI Center concentrates on applying AI technologies to consumer products. The Samsung Strategy Innovation Center in California seeks innovation in the development of technologies.

Koh Dong-jin, CEO and head of Samsung’s smartphone business, said at a press conference last month that the company’s research on AI is increasingly taking place across borders.

“In the past, central parts of technology development were restricted to domestic centers, but today the borders are becoming meaningless,” Koh said. “We will let more and more research activities on core technologies take place outside the country, and seamlessly incorporate them.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)