Seattle-based artificial intelligence company Mighty AI plans to open an office in Detroit, where it sees the future of autonomous vehicles, a company spokeswoman said.

"There's kind of this battle of whether (the future of autonomous vehicles) is in Silicon Valley or Detroit," said Angela Cherry, director of communications for Mighty AI. "We really think Detroit is going to be a big part of how autonomous driving is going forward in this country."

The company, founded in 2014 and made up of 45 employees, will open its second office in Detroit, sharing space with Techstars Mobility at Ford Field. The company's customer product manager Sheikh Shuvo is relocating there this summer and the company hopes to add business development and engineering positions within the year, Cherry said.

Mighty AI provides a training data platform for companies building computer vision models to teach self-driving vehicles. For example, autonomous cars need to be trained to see and recognize objects like pedestrians and bikes so they can drive safely, Cherry said.

Its clients include tier one automotive OEMs, startups and suppliers, Cherry said.

The company believes Techstars is a perfect partner in Detroit because of its positioning and knowledge of the community. It also plans to collaborate with Techstars' entrepreneurship training programs.

Cherry said the company is excited about putting a stake in the ground in Detroit because "it's the right place to be right now.

"Just like 100 years ago with Henry Ford, Detroit is poised to do the same thing," she said.