Google Inc. has launched a new investment fund to invest in artificial-intelligence startups.

Called Gradient, the new fund will be a early-stage venture capital fund with a difference. Not only will it invest in AI startups but it also will provide technical resources, dedicated access to experts, AI boot camps and mentorships.

The new fund will look to invest in 10 to 15 startups this year with a minority buy-in of between $1 million to $8 million. But it’s not an entirely new effort and has apparently been operating in stealth for some time. Google said the fund already has a number of portfolio companies, including Algorithmia Inc., a marketplace for algorithms and functions, and Cogniac Inc., a suite of tools used to create and manage visual models.

“If we’re really going to help AI happen faster, we needed to be more involved in the community,” Anna Patterson, founder and managing director of Gradient, told CNBC. “That’s why we decided to do this – to spur innovation in the AI space.”

Joining Patterson at the fund are Google engineering director Ankit Jain and Shabih Rizvi from Kleiner Perkins, while Google directors Ray Kurzweil, Peter Norvig, Matias Duarte and Marvin Chow are acting as advisers along with Astro Teller from Alphabet X, Daphne Koller from Calico and Jeremy Doig from YouTube.

It’s not clear how big the fund’s pool of money is. But interestingly, there are some limitations on it, specifically that Google employees are being prohibited from taking any intellectual property from a portfolio company in-house.

It goes without saying that AI development is extremely hot at the moment. Google’s setting up a fund to invest in earl- stage AI startups is like a man throwing bread crumbs to pigeons, but with a twist: Those pigeons could turn into prizewinning birds somewhere down the line.

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