Microsoft to double size of Montreal research lab to bolster machine learning and deep learning tech

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussing Canadian expansion and AI at Davos

“Montreal is really one of the most exciting places in AI right now,” said Jennifer Chayes, a technical fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, New York City and Montreal.

Microsoft announced plans to significantly expand its Montreal research lab, starting with the hire of renowned artificial intelligence expert, Geoff Gordon as the lab’s Research Director.

The expansion comes as Montreal is becoming a worldwide hub for groundbreaking work in the fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are core to AI advances. Upcoming plans include doubling the size of Microsoft Research Montreal within the next two years, to as many as 75 technical experts. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today in Davos to discuss Microsoft’s plans for the Montreal Research lab and Montreal’s AI ecosystem.

Gordon is an expert in reinforcement learning and has done groundbreaking work in areas such as robotics and natural language processing. Geoff plans to expand on Montreal’s  current advances in AI disciplines including machine reading comprehension and in methods for teaching AI systems to do complex tasks.

“Montreal is really one of the most exciting places in AI right now,” said Jennifer Chayes, a technical fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, New York City and Montreal.

In a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella discussed Microsoft’s ongoing investment in Canada and the expansion of the Montreal lab, including Gordon’s hiring.  

Chayes said Gordon, currently a professor of machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, was a natural choice for the job in part because he’s interested in both the foundational AI research that addresses fundamental AI challenges and the applied work that can quickly find its way into mainstream use.

“We want to be doing the research that will be infusing AI into Microsoft products today and tomorrow, and Geoff’s research really spans that,” she said. “He’ll be able to help us improve our products and he’ll also be laying the foundation for AI to do much more than is possible today.”