Google has announced a partnership with artificial intelligence teams at Oxford University to teach machines to think like people.

Oxford professors behind spinoff startups Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory will work with DeepMind, a London-based startup that Google bought early this year.

Financial terms of the alliance were not disclosed, but DeepMind co-founder and Google vice president of engineering Demis Hassabis said in a blog post that it involves a "substantial contribution" to set up a partnership that will include student internships, joint lectures, and workshops.

The artificial intelligence effort will be aimed at getting machines to better understand what they hear and see, potentially powering services such as intuitive virtual assistants and online search tools.

Google earlier this week was among a group of investors participating in a $US542 million  funding of Magic Leap, which produces software for augmented reality, calling the effort a new "visual computing platform".