The newly formed automotive specialist Cerence Inc. has become a resident partner at the Mila Artificial Intelligence Institute in Quebec. The Institute’s lab is located near Cerence’s Montreal office, which employs more than 450 employees and is responsible for much of the company’s R&D.

The close proximity will give Mila interns the opportunity to collaborate with Cerence researchers on a variety of research projects and publications.

Of course, the news should hardly be surprising given Cerence’s prior relationship with Mila under the Nuance Communications banner. Nuance formed a similar research partnership with Mila back in June, and Cerence seems eager to continue the alliance now that it has officially spun off as an independent company.

“As we begin our new journey as Cerence, we are thrilled to have Mila as a resource,” said Cerence R&D SVP Udo Haiber. “Our alignment with Mila will enable us to work more closely with academic AI researchers worldwide to revolutionize the in-car experience, especially as we approach the horizon of autonomous vehicles.”

“The car is quickly becoming one of the premier platforms for AI-powered innovations, and we expect that the applications seen in the car will transcend the world of mobility and influence other industries and areas,” added Mila Scientific Director Yoshua Bengio.

Cerence was previously the automotive division of Nuance Communications. Now that it has gone solo, the company is one of the leading providers of artificial intelligence for next generation smart cars. Cerence has already provided virtual assistants with speech recognition capabilities for a range of car manufacturers, including BMW, Geely, and MG Motor. 

Nuance and Cerence are not the only companies with ties to Mila. Samsung and Algolux have also formed research partnerships with the organization.