BEIJING, May 24 (Xinhua) -- An open platform has been set up to share data and tools on artificial intelligence (AI) research in China, according to China Science Daily on Thursday.

Under the guidance of the Ministry of Education, the platform was jointly organized by Microsoft Research Asia and four Chinese universities, namely Peking University, University of Science and Technology of China, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Zhejiang University.

According to Zhou Lidong, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, the platform will provide technological support, data, tools, as well as courses on AI to Chinese universities.

Based on Microsoft's AI development platform and tools, the open source AI platform will further promote AI innovation, Zhou said.

Five training sessions will be held in Harbin, Guangzhou, and other cities by the end of 2018 to get more Chinese universities involved in the platform.