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Multinational corporation Microsoft announced that following its acquisition of Maluuba, a Montréal-based start-up, it plans to double the size of the company over the next two years. Maluuba is active in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine language recognition. Microsoft aims to accelerate the design of software that enables computers to read, write and conduct conversations in a natural manner, like human beings.

Microsoft also announced that it will provide grants totalling $6 million to Université de Montréal and $1 million to McGill University over five years to support research on AI.

“Microsoft is very enthusiastic about partnering with professors, students and the large technology community in Montréal, which is quickly becoming a global hot spot in artificial intelligence R&D. Combined with the opening of our Vancouver offices and our work to create the new Cascadia innovation corridor linking Vancouver to Seattle, today’s announcement reinforces the important part that Canada plays in Microsoft’s international business operations,” said Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft at the World Economic Forum in Davos.