Alibaba to launch global research academy
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced on Wednesday the launch of a global research academy that it hopes will join the ranks of, and potentially outrival, Bell Labs and Microsoft Research.
Chief Technology Officer Zhang Jianfeng will head the academy, assisted by a global advisory board that includes some of the world's technology luminaries, such as George Church, a leading light of the Human Genome Project, as well as Michael Jordan, a mastermind in artificial intelligence.