I’m thrilled to make two announcements today. The first is the creation of Uber AI Labs, a new division of Uber, based in San Francisco, dedicated to cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence and machine learning. And the second is the acquisition of the AI research startup Geometric Intelligence, whose 15 members will form the initial core of the AI Labs team.

Uber is in the business of using technology to move people and things in the real world. With all of its complexity and uncertainty, negotiating the real world is a high-order intelligence problem. It manifests in myriad ways, from determining an optimal route to computing when your car or UberEATS order will arrive to matching riders for uberPOOL. It extends to teaching a self-driven machine to safely and autonomously navigate the world, whether a car on the roads or an aircraft through busy airspace or new types of robotic devices.

In spite of notable wins with machine learning in recent years, we are still very much in the early innings of machine intelligence. The formation of Uber AI Labs, to be directed by Geometric’s Founding CEO Gary Marcus, represents Uber’s commitment to advancing the state of the art, driven by our vision that moving people and things in the physical world can be radically faster, safer and accessible to all.

Please join me in welcoming the Geometric Intelligence team to Uber!