HONG KONG — Google pulled some of its core businesses out of China seven years ago, after concluding that government controls and surveillance ran counter to its commitment to a free and open internet.

香港——七年前，谷歌(Google)得出结论认为，中国政府的控制和监控与公司致力于自由开放的互联网的承诺背道而驰。之后，公司将一些核心业务撤出了中国。

Since then, as China’s online scene has grown and prospered¹, the American search giant has been looking for ways to tiptoe back in.

从那以后，随着中国网上景象的发展繁荣，这家美国搜索巨头一直在寻找悄悄回到中国的方法。

On Wednesday, it unveiled a small but symbolically² significant move toward that end: a China-based center devoted³ to artificial intelligence. The move nods to the country’s growing strength in A.I., thanks to substantial government funding prompted by Beijing’s ambition of having a say in the technologies of the future.

周三，谷歌公布了一个规模不大但具有象征意义的、朝着上述目标迈出的一步：公司将成立一个致力于人工智能（简称AI）的中国中心。北京有在未来技术领域拥有发言权的野心，这种野心推动了中国政府的大力投入，让国内在人工智能领域展现出日益增长的实力。谷歌此举是对这种实力的认可。

Google said the center would have a team of experts in Beijing, where the company has hundreds of employees in research and development, as well as other roles. The center will be led by Fei-Fei Li, who runs Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab and leads the artificial intelligence arm of Google’s Cloud business, and Jia Li, the head of research and development for the A.I. division of Google Cloud.

谷歌表示，该中心将在北京拥有一个专家团队，谷歌已在北京有数百名从事研发和其他工作的员工。谷歌AI中国中心将由李飞飞和李佳领导。李飞飞是斯坦福大学人工智能实验室的负责人，领导着谷歌云业务的人工智能部门；李佳是谷歌云业务的人工智能部门研发主管。

The Silicon⁴ Valley company, which announced the center’s opening at a software developer conference in Shanghai, cited China’s growing academic and technical contributions to the A.I. field, and said the new center would be “working closely with the vibrant⁵ Chinese A.I. research community.”

在上海举行的一个软件开发者大会上，这家硅谷公司宣布了成立该中心的决定。谷歌在宣布中提到，中国在人工智能领域的学术和技术方面的贡献不断增加，并表示新中心将“与中国活跃的人工智能研究界紧密合作”。

“The science of A.I. has no borders,” Fei-Fei Li said in a post on Google’s website, and “neither do its benefits.”

“人工智能科学没有国界，”李飞飞在谷歌网站上的一篇文章中写道，“其带来的好处也没有国界。”

Google did not disclose financial details.

谷歌没有披露有关的财务细节。

The company is only the latest big technology name to set up an A.I. shop in China to capitalize on growing skills and lavish⁶ state support. Microsoft, IBM and other Western and domestic stalwarts are busy hiring Chinese staff members in a field with a wide variety of potential applications.

许多大型技术公司都在中国成立人工智能中心，希望能够对中国在这个领域不断增长的技能和政府的慷慨支持加以利用， 谷歌只不过是其中最近的一个。微软(Microsoft)、IBM及其他西方和国内的致力于AI的企业正忙着在这个有各种潜在应用的领域雇用中国员工。

China’s A.I. push is part of a government-driven effort to upgrade the country’s technological⁷ abilities and to wean itself off foreign-made software and advanced equipment. The push has prompted worries among Western corporate⁸ executives, and increasingly the Trump⁹ administration, which complain that Beijing unfairly nurtures¹⁰ their potential rivals.

中国推动人工智能项目是政府牵头的努力的一部分。中国政府正在努力提升国内的技术能力，让中国不受外国制造的软件和先进设备的制约。这种努力在西方企业高管中，并且越来越多地在特朗普政府中引起担忧；西方企业抱怨称，北京扶植其潜在竞争对手的做法不公平。

The new Google A.I. center could deepen the company’s fraught¹¹ but complicated relationship with China, now home to the world’s biggest population of online users.

新的谷歌人工智能中心可能会加深该公司与中国之间焦虑而复杂的关系，中国目前有世界上最大的在线用户群体。

Google closed its search business in China in 2010, saying it would no longer tolerate Beijing’s censorship requirements and government-linked efforts to hack¹² the Gmail accounts of human rights activists¹³ and others. Google’s services were subsequently blocked in the country, and China’s internet developed its own answers to the company’s products, from email and search to video-sharing and chat.

2010年，谷歌在关闭了其在中国的搜索业务。公司当时表示，对于北京的审查要求，以及侵入人权活动人士和其他人的Gmail账户的有政府背景的努力，该公司不会再容忍。谷歌的服务随后在中国被屏蔽，而中国在互联网上发展出了自己一系列服务，从电子邮件和搜索、到视频分享和聊天等，替代谷歌的产品。

Still, Google never left China entirely¹⁴. It has an active business distributing online ads for desktop¹⁵ computers and mobile applications, and Chinese makers¹⁶ of smartphones use its Android mobile device software.

尽管如此，谷歌从未彻底离开中国。谷歌在中国有一个活跃的在线广告业务，在桌面端和移动端应用平台上分销广告；中国的智能手机制造商也使用谷歌的Android移动设备操作系统。

The two sides have shown signs of warming. Last week, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, spoke¹⁷ at China’s annual internet conference in the city of Wuzhen, saying the company did robust¹⁸ business helping¹⁹ Chinese firms seeking customers abroad. And this year, Google began offering its translation software in China.

双方都已显示出缓和的迹象。上周，谷歌首席执行官桑达尔·皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)在乌镇举行的年度中国互联网大会上讲话时说，在帮助中国企业寻找海外客户方面，谷歌的业务很强劲。今年，谷歌开始在中国推出其翻译软件。

“We have 600-plus employees in China and we had a similar number in 2010,” said Taj Meadows, a Google spokesman. “Roughly half of them are engineers working on global products. Work on A.I. will be in a similar vein²⁰.”

“我们在中国有600多名员工，和我们在2010年的人数相近，”谷歌发言人泰姬·梅多斯(Taj Meadows)说。“其中大约一半是从事全球产品研发的工程师。人工智能的研发也将是类似的情况。”

Tech figures inside and outside the country are watching whether Google opens a mobile app store there, but there has been little indication of progress on that front.

国内外技术界的人士都在关注谷歌是否会在中国开设移动应用店，但在这方面几乎没有出现进展的迹象。