Jan 24 (Reuters) - DeepMind Technologies, owned by Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), is closing its office in the Canadian city of Edmonton, a spokesperson for the AI firm said, just days after Google's parent announced it would lay off 12,000 employees.
London-based DeepMind's Edmonton office is the only international site directly managed by the artificial intelligence firm, making it far more resource-intensive to operate, the spokesperson said.
Researchers have been offered the option to relocate to another DeepMind office, such as DeepMind Montreal, based in Google’s Montreal office, the spokesperson added.
Google acquired DeepMind in 2014, putting the tech giant ahead in the AI race than most of its peers.
Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru and Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.