Facebook on Monday said it was partnering with New York University for a new center for artificial intelligence, aimed at harnessing the social network's data. The lab will work on "machine learning", which involves computers "learning" to extract knowledge from giant data sets.

Yann LeCun, a French-born mathematician and computer scientist, will be the director of this new lab.

The new AI Group at Facebook will have locations in Menlo Park, CA, in London, UK, and at Facebook's new facility in New York City, one block away from NYU's main campus.

Google and Microsoft ahave been also researching artificial intelligence, which could help in delivering improved search results and in new products.