TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Following recent
investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning,
RBC today announced Dr. Richard S.
Sutton, one of the modern day pioneers of AI, as head
academic advisor to RBC Research in machine learning. RBC Research
will establish a new lab and plan to work with the Alberta Machine
Intelligence Institute (Amii), based at the University of Alberta, to identify and pursue
further research collaboration opportunities on an ongoing
basis.
"We are thrilled to be opening a lab in Edmonton and to collaborate with world-class
scientists like Dr. Sutton and the other researchers at Amii," said
Dr. Foteini Agrafioti, head of RBC
Research. "RBC Research has built strong capabilities in
deep-learning, and with this expansion, we are well poised to play
a major role in advancing research in AI and impact the future of
banking."
Dr. Sutton is widely recognized for his work in reinforcement
learning, an area of machine learning that focuses on making
predictions without historical data or explicit examples.
Reinforcement learning techniques have been shown to be
particularly powerful in determining ideal behaviours in complex
environments. Most recently, the techniques were used to secure a
first-ever victory over a human world-champion in the game of Go,
as well as recent applications in robotics and self-driving
cars.
"The collaboration between RBC Research and Amii will help
support the development of an AI ecosystem in Canada that will push the boundaries of
academic knowledge," said Dr. Sutton. "With RBC's continued
support, we will cultivate the next generation of computer
scientists who will develop innovative solutions to the toughest
challenges facing Canada and
beyond. We've only scratched the surface of what reinforcement
learning can do in finance and are excited to unleash even greater
possibilities with this collaboration between RBC Research and
Amii."
"RBC is committed to helping build Canada's digital future and our significant
investments in AI represent part of that commitment," said
Gabriel Woo, vice-president of
innovation at RBC. "We believe AI has the potential to bring about
major improvements in areas such as client service, fraud
prevention and risk management; advancements that will have
far-reaching benefits in financial services and beyond. Partnering
with a leading institution like the University
of Alberta is an important step forward as we continue to
explore this emerging technology."
RBC Research is also collaborating with the University of Alberta to provide opportunities like
internships, academic collaborations and exchanges with the
Toronto-based research team to
students and researchers. Dr. Eirene
Seiradaki, academic partnerships lead at RBC, will be the
key contact between RBC Research and professors, researchers and
students interested in using machine learning to drive innovation
in banking. With almost 20 years of experience in academics, Dr.
Seiradaki joined RBC in 2016 and brings a strong commitment to
fostering innovation and supporting the academic community.
RBC recently announced two additional initiatives in
collaboration with the University of
Toronto, ensuring Canada
remains a leading centre of development in machine learning and
AI.
About RBC Research
RBC Research supports RBC's
innovation strategy through fundamental scientific study and
exploration in machine learning theory and applications. The team
aims to develop state-of-the-art in financial technologies and
supports open academic collaborations with world-class research
centres in artificial intelligence. For more information, please
visit rbcresearch.com.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest bank, and one of the largest
banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of
North America's leading
diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and
commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor services
and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We
have over 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than
16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional
clients through offices in Canada,
the U.S. and 36 other countries. For more information, please visit
http://www.rbc.com/.
RBC helps communities prosper, supporting a broad range of
community initiatives through donations, community investments and
employee volunteer activities. For more information please see:
http://www.rbc.com/community-sustainability/.
About Amii
Amii, the Alberta Machine Intelligence
Institute, conducts leading-edge research in the fields of
artificial intelligence and machine learning, together called
machine intelligence. Funded by the Ministry of Economic
Development and Trade at the Government of Alberta and based out of the Department of
Computing Science in the Faculty of Science at the University of Alberta, Amii's eleven researchers
push the bounds of academic knowledge and forge collaborations both
locally and internationally to develop innovative, adaptive
solutions for some of the toughest challenges facing Alberta and beyond. For more information,
please visit http://www.amii.ca/.
SOURCE RBC