Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Research has unveiled plans to establish a new lab to research and develop artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning products. RBC will work with the Alberta Machine Learning Institute (Amii), based at the University of Alberta.

RBC also announced that Richard Sutton will be the project’s head academic advisor. Sutton is widely recognised for his work in reinforcement learning, an area of machine learning that focuses on making predictions without historical data or explicit examples.

Sutton said: “RBC is committed to helping build Canada’s digital future and our significant investments in AI represent part of that commitment. 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.”

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.

Goteini Agrafioto, head of RBC Research, added: “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. 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.”

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