Google plans to open a dedicated machine learning centre in its Switzerland-based office in Zurich.

Machine intelligence powers many of Google’s everyday services that are used by hundreds of millions of people a day, including Translate, Photo Search, and Smart Reply for Inbox.

The new research centre will develop machine learning technologies and techniques in three specific areas: machine intelligence, machine perception, and natural language processing and understanding.

Machine intelligence brings together deep learning with more traditional algorithms, statistical models, and even game theory. Research in machine perception tackles the problems of understanding images, sounds, music, and video, while natural language processing does what it says on the tin. All of these require vast data sets to work on.

In the case of language processing, Google has teamed up with a number of European Union bodies including the European Patent Office. Software engineers and researchers in Zurich will also be able to work closely with a team of linguists, according to a Google blog post.

Zurich is already the home of the Mountain View-headquartered company’s largest engineering office outside the US, and is responsible for developing the engine that powers Knowledge Graph, as well as the conversation engine that powers the Google Assistant in Allo.

“Europe is home to some of the world’s premier technical universities, making it an ideal place to build a top-notch research team. We look forward to collaborating with all the excellent Computer Science research that is coming from the region, and hope to contribute towards the wider academic community through our publications and academic support,” said Emmanuel Mogenet, who is head of Google Research Europe.