Facebook is setting up an artificial intelligence research lab in Pittsburgh with Carnegie Mellon University robotics experts at the helm.
It’s unclear at the moment how many researchers the Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech giant will hire for the local lab, where it will be located or what the focus will be, but two of the confirmed researchers joining the team could be a hint.
Jessica Hodgins and Abhinav Gupta will work at the lab part-time, confirmed Ari Entin, who heads AI communications for Facebook.
Pittsburgh and Seattle will host the sixth and seventh AI research labs, supplementing existing facilities in Menlo Park and New York City in the U.S., and Paris, Montreal and Tel Aviv abroad.
Ms. Hodgins, a professor in the School of Computer Science and a researcher at the Robotics Institute, will split her time between Facebook and university work. In 2008, she first established the Disney research lab on CMU’s campus, which was closed earlier this year (though the school and company do still have a working relationship).
She is an expert in computer animation, humanoid robotics and human-robot interaction and will be flanked by Mr. Gupta, who also studies human-robot interaction in addition to computer vision and perception.
Amid concerns that Big Tech is poaching university talent at a dizzying pace, Yann LeCun, director of AI research at Facebook, wrote in a post on the social media platform last Friday that it is erroneous to categorize the company’s hiring as a “brain drain” from academia.
He contends that these researchers typically work part-time for Facebook and that full-time hires are still affiliated with their universities and are given time to advise Ph.D. students, the next generation of talent to come through the pipeline.
“All of us teach classes, advise graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and participate in the life of our academic departments,” Mr. LeCun wrote. “Our time is split 80/20, 50/50 or 20/80.”
Facebook already operates an Oculus research lab in Oakland, where researchers from CMU study applications for the company’s virtual reality arm. That office has 10 job openings and a few have the requirement that applicants are Ph.D. university graduates or are in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. in the subject matter area.
The Oculus office is interested in finding an engineering manager for human understanding, a researcher in machine learning systems and computer vision experts, among others. It’s not clear if the new AI lab will be in the same space as Oculus.
Yaser Sheikh, an associate professor at the Robotics Institute, leads the Oculus office and splits his time between there and CMU.
Still, the concept of poaching, or stealing away university talent for commercial purposes, is not a new narrative in Pittsburgh — though it’s one typically shrugged off by both the schools and industry.
In 2015, Uber announced it would begin work on autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh with help from researchers at CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville. About 40 researchers left to work for the San Francisco-based ride-hailing firm at the time.
Google did the same in 2006 when it set up its engineering center in Larimer’s Bakery Square complex.
Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science at CMU, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon because, coincidentally, he is attending the White House’s “Artificial Intelligence for American Industry” summit. He has consistently decried talent wars between industry and academia in the past.
“This kind of thing happens to us a few times a year,” he told the Post-Gazette in 2016. “We’re focused on ‘what’s next?’”
When Facebook set up shop in Montreal last November, it immediately placed 10 researchers at the lab, confirmed Mr. Entin. Within a year, that lab should triple in size with a combination of university hires and Ph.D. students who will work at the lab for a time on a rotating basis.
If that’s any indication of the plans for Facebook’s new Pittsburgh lab, it’s not unreasonable to think at least two dozen researchers will join.
Mr. Moore said in an interview last summer that there are 120 faculty members working in various components of AI research, among 200 other Ph.D. students, 300-400 graduate students and at least 150 undergraduates.
Often, researchers will either return to the school or maintain an affiliation. Mr. Moore, himself, left CMU for Google in 2006 when the company was first setting up shop, then he returned in 2014.
In similar fashion, Manuela Veloso, head of the machine learning repartment at the School of Computer Science, is taking a leave of absence from CMU, effective July 1, to take on a position with J.P. Morgan Chase, where she will lead artificial intelligence research.
Ms. Veloso is one of four faculty members leading the school’s nascent artificial intelligence initiative, called CMU AI. Its aim is to unite the university’s various disciplines of AI research across campus under one umbrella to foster more funding, spinouts and commercialization.
CMU announced Thursday morning that it would offer what it claims to be the first-ever bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence.
Perhaps that could patch the pipeline if researchers leave en masse.
With the exception of Mr. Gupta and Ms. Hodgins, Facebook did not confirm any other hires or how many it expects to employ at the lab.
“Jessica just signed paperwork and started orientation this week,” Mr. Entin said, highlighting the fledgling announcement.
Facebook will have more details about the team size and areas of research in the next two weeks, he said, since the company is not yet prepared to make an announcement.
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
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First Published: May 10, 2018, 6:28 p.m.
Updated: May 10, 2018, 6:46 p.m.
