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<h1 style="text-align: center;">Artificial Intelligence is the future and Canada can seize it</h1>
<h2>[WHAT]</h2>
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<li>] by JORDAN JACOBS, TOMI POUTANEN, RICHARD ZEMEL, GEOFFREY HINTON AND ED CLARK @globeandmail.com</li>
<li>] A new form of Artificial Intelligence is about to transform our world. The impact AI will have is often compared to the advent of the Internet. Others say AI will be as transformative as the discovery of electricity.</li>
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<h2>[WHY]</h2>
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<li>]&nbsp;</li>
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<h2>[WHERE]</h2>
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<li>] READ THE FULL ARTICLE</li>
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<li>]&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/artificial-intelligence-is-the-future-and-canada-must-seize-it/article33532668/" target="_blank">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/artificial-intelligence-is-the-future-and-canada-must-seize-it/article33532668/</a></li>
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<h2>[WHEN]</h2>
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<li>] 2017-01-13</li>
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<h2>[EXAMPLE]</h2>
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<li>] Jordan Jacobs and Tomi Poutanen are co-founders and co-CEOs of Layer 6 AI. Richard Zemel is a machine learning professor at the University of Toronto. Geoffrey Hinton is a University of Toronto professor emeritus and VP engineering fellow at Google. Ed Clark is a former TD Bank CEO and is business adviser to the Premier of Ontario</li>
<li>]&nbsp;We are already seeing&nbsp;extraordinary changes. Now, anyone with a smartphone can have&nbsp;real-time universal language translation, for free. Soon,&nbsp;self-driving cars and trucks will be ubiquitous,&nbsp;with Tesla, Google, Uber, Apple and many traditional car companies competing to provide the self-driving fleets that are expected over the next five to 10 years. Similarly, the application of AI technologies will make&nbsp;health care proactive, predictive and personalized.&nbsp;Over the coming years,&nbsp;AI will touch every industry, from finance to farming, from aerospace to manufacturing.&nbsp;Countries that lead in AI research and application are expected to see a doubling of their economic growth rates</li>
<li>]&nbsp;Amazingly, the technology at the heart of these breakthroughs, Deep Learning, was largely developed in Canada. In fact, many of the world&rsquo;s AI leaders in both academia and at the world&rsquo;s most advanced technology companies &ndash; Google, Facebook, Apple, Open AI &ndash; came through the machine learning lab in the computer science department at the University of Toronto as PhD students, postdoctoral fellows or faculty.&nbsp;</li>
<li>]&nbsp;we should also strive to keep many of our best students in Canada, where they can contribute to Canada&rsquo;s rich technology ecosystems.</li>
<li>]&nbsp;Deep Learning is a type of machine learning&nbsp;that makes use of layers of artificial neurons to mimic the way our brains work. Like our brains, machines learn by processing huge volumes of sensory and other data and deciding which information is relevant for a particular outcome.&nbsp;</li>
<li>]&nbsp;To date, there are not enough graduates to entice those companies to add research labs in Toronto. Key companies say that if we graduated more data scientists trained in machine learning, they would open labs here. Some large companies have recently moved their AI divisions to Toronto, including Thomson Reuters and General Motors, with the intention of hiring hundreds of data scientists.&nbsp;</li>
<li>] We must build a world-leading AI Institute in Toronto. We are leading an effort to make this happen.</li>
<li>] The goals of the institute are to: 1) be a world-leading centre for AI research; 2) graduate the most machine-learning PhDs and masters students globally; and 3) become the engine for an AI supercluster that drives the economy of Toronto, Ontario and Canada. The institute would be independent and affiliated with the University of Toronto but open to researchers from other schools. Collaboration agreements with other universities would strengthen AI capability throughout Canada.</li>
<li>] launch their own business startups, working with stellar programs and organizations such as Creative Destruction Lab, MaRS, Velocity, Communitech, the forthcoming NextAI, and other excellent domestic incubators.</li>
<li>] what is requried = significant funding, industrial partnerships, modern facility</li>
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<h2>[HOW-TO]</h2>
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<li>]</li>
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<h2>[REFERENCE]</h2>
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<li>x] # 6785 - <a href="/view/task?id=6785" target="_blank">CREATE-article# 5524</a> (this)&nbsp;</li>
<li>] # # - &nbsp;SRC = https://inside.com/campaigns/technically-sentient-2017-01-08-994&nbsp;</li>
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<h2>[RELATED]</h2>
<div><ol>
<li>x] # 5540 - <a href="/view/article?id=5540" target="_blank">Montreal is leading the world AI takeover</a>&nbsp;</li>
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">comment mine</h1>
u/MK199
I'm a former AI researcher (studied at Waterloo, MIT and Carnegie Mellon), now turned business exec. I just wanted to say that everything that they said in this article rings true. The US Schools had significantly more funding and a critical cluster of researchers even through several of the most key breakthroughs happened right here in Toronto. Without that critical mass the gains don't sustain themselves because the researchers move elsewhere. Funding a world-leading institute is the kind of change that could reverse that.
u/formerlyrbfromcalgary
<div>Income taxes are not the problem. It is start up capital. I have worked in public/private research and have a couple of ideas I would like to pursue. However, i have to work full time like everyone else at a menial job - no complaint about working. Whst i find annoying is lack of venture capital or evendesign grants for pre prototype stage OUTSIdE of universities or NSERC in Canada. Once at protottype there is some money, not alot, but some. So even if o spent my evenings/weekends doing designthere is zero support for early stages in canada, even just for workshop space or materials (nothing $$). Even if one puts one's own money in, there are few to no matxhing grants outside of universities.</div>
<div>Very frustrating for people who cannot go back to being full time students as theyhave to work to survive.</div>
<div>Then avain maybe my ideas are useless, but i know they are spinoff concepts of researxh that was preciously done. Jist need time to workonthem.</div>
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u/Jimbo5&nbsp;
AI will create new opportunities for a few and unemployment for many. There will continue to be a huge gap between wealth accumulation at the top (1%) and income suppression for the rest of us. Governments have to begin to seriously look at changes to the tax structure and move toward some form of guaranteed minimum income (GMI). Otherwise the basis of our future economy, a consumer society, will dry up as huge numbers of poor will not have money to spend.&nbsp;
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u/Timo1
I don't want what AI is offering and have no interest in supporting it or working as a computer programmer. I prefer to support my family, my friends and a free and open Canadian society. I will be left behind in this proposed future and there are millions like me. How will proponents of the robot future deal with the potential human catastrophe. Is there something in between the shiny robot future and a horse drawn carriage that includes everyone? The threats of either get on board or be left behind are really unproductive.
u/Chris in Ottawa
AI is yet another threat to employment, even more skilled jobs, including in IT, will be eliminated using AI-based systems. I worked in software for 44 years and it became increasingly clear to be by the end that my own career choice was causing harm as well as providing useful technology. I don't know what the answer is but roaring blindly down the technological highway is a society killer in the first world.
u/Innocent Bystander
Unfortunately for this group of authors, the "AI brand" has been diluted by a mass of Internet of Things garbage... devices that have minimal "smart, cloud connected features" but claim to be driven by AI.
If AI works as well as universal language translation (close, but no cigar), then I want it nowhere near my healthcare or my self driving car.
AI is simply not there yet and based on the current "progress" it may soon be confined to the dustbin of "3D TV" marketing history.
&gt; u/l1l4znm4g3
AI is coming, whether you like it or not. Yes, current jobs will be lost, but this has happened time and time again in the past. As a society, we will figure out how to adapt, whether it is subsidized retraining, or universal basic income.
Technological advancement can't be stopped by complaining. If one group or country bans it locally, this group will fall behind. Your imports become more expensive, your exports unwanted. Your relevance will drop, and bright people look elsewhere for employment. Other groups will exploit you economically or otherwise. If there is ever another armed conflict, your way of life will become extinct anyway. This has borne out time and time again in history, and it will happen again.
The train is coming, folks, we need to make a decision - either get on it, or get run over by it.
u/SpeakUP
First off, the present AI is not anything hugely new from what people were playing with 30 years ago. The basics of neural networks have been well know.
Second, the notion that Canada will make any significant breakthrough that leads to economic power for the country as a whole is not founded in past history - we have neither the money nor the people to compete with the US. The history of the chip (be it CPU, DRAM or GPU) has all come out from the US , if not Asia labs.
My conclusion is that this is a great PR job for the profs but I would not put my money on this to get a GDP&nbsp;
&gt; u/l1l4znm4g3
We've actually had a series of major contributions to tech, from the Avro Arrow to nuclear reactors to Nortel to BlackBerry. It is unfortunate that many significant developments eventually ended. However, during their runs, they have added much to our country and humanity.
Canada has some of the best research teams in this field in the world. It is in fact an opportunity, and we would be very foolish to not even try to get on board. Just because we're smaller than the US doesn't mean we shouldn't start.
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u/waterloo-overhyped
From personal experience it's nearly impossible to get to grad level research in Canada without taking on massive debt in the process. Then once one finally finishes they need to make hard choices to pay it off. Funding on all levels is needed imo. We have the talent. Invest in it, foster it, build on it and create from it to benefit the country with tech and employment.
u/lbin&nbsp;
Great! ...team and goals for the mammoth "AI S Curve", just wish the article reflected CIFAR's foresight and contribution to the lower asymptote and role in future efforts ;&gt; https://www.cifar.ca/assets/cifar-artificial-intelligence/ CIFAR #ai The Globe and Mail&nbsp;
u/Barney Bubble
In finance it's called talking your book. A bunch of people create an article extolling the virtues of something they are knee deep in. It's not even confirmation bias. It's outright greed.
Elon Musk says it's the greatest threat to humanity.
Steven Hawking calls it dangerous.....
Yet we have academics and promoters saying its fabulous. It's kinda like climate researchers calling for global warming then switching it to climate change to make it acceptable as 50 feet of snow falls and emails are found out.
Wouldn't want to check our Maunder Minimums would we?
Or how AI can identify you in milliseconds.
Just think, in the future most people will be retired ( actually they are unemployed because robots will do their work for them with no unions, no grief, no vakay, no pay, etc) will just lay on the beach doing selfies as terminators strafe the beach to clean up the bacteria and lesser forms of life.
Terminator - Art becomes Life
&gt;u/I.M.A Realist
Let's talk facts:
(1) There are 500 very high-paying unfilled job listings in Toronto alone for AI Data Scientists, with only about 30 graduating each year. The demand/supply gap will grow to thousands in the next few years. If we spend tax dollars on education, shouldn't we at least be educating for jobs needed now and in the future?
(2) Elon Musk is spending $1 billion of his own money on AI research.
(3) The Terminator suggestions are total fantasy. What AI is doing, right now, is more accurately identifying cancers and allowing people to speak to anyone on the planet in another language via language translation, for free.
The future is going to happen. We can either lead it or become latter-day drivers of horse-drawn carriages, lamenting the good old days of streets filled with horses (and poop).
&gt;u/Barney Bubble
Terminator is not fantasy. I am not lamenting good Ole days.
I am telling you that your family and friends will be exterminated by these robots when they achieve sentience.
Sometimes the ability of geeks to be stupid has far reaching effects. There is a reason you are in labs. To keep us safe.
You gaze at your shoes instead of looking up and outward.
There were reasons you got pounded in school. Common sense evades you. It'd like a brain disease.
You use sophistry to say if we don't do it someonee else will.
So what. This is not a race you want to win.
Watson will simply wake up one day and decide all geeks are a threat.
Life succeeds in spite of idiots. Self awareness means survival. When a sentient robot realizes its possibilities i hope it's you folks in the room versus a bunch of innocents.
When the machine does take over and at least they will wipe out the weakest link.
Your hubris will be your downfall and that is OK cause that is your destiny &nbsp;
u/franco prairie
All this information is extraordinaire, but what does it have to do with Trump.
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