Baidu, China's largest search engine giant, has announced its establishment of a research lab in Silicon Valley in California, Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.

The lab will focus on the development of artificial intelligence and deep learning, a field that has recently drawn investment from world-leading technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

Andrew Ng, a leading figure in the field of artificial intelligence, was named as Chief Scientist of Baidu and will take full charge of the lab.

"There's been this old stereotype that other companies copy US technologies, but Baidu has developed many unique products and technologies of the world,” said Andrew Ng.

Andrew Ng founded and led Google’s Deep Learning team, and is known for his work on building massive scale artificial neural networks. He is also the co-founder of Coursera, which offers online courses from top universities. After joining Baidu, he will retain his position as chairman of Coursera’s board.