Today, the fourth industrial revolution is being fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI), which is disrupting and transforming almost every industry. Inevitably, the countries that invest most heavily in their successful domestic AI technology companies will rise in global presence. Canada is running in this race, but is not in first place. “We’re the junior partner,… Keep Reading
On Oct. 11, Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) Director Yann Lecun, in collaboration with McGill’s Integrated Management Symposium Series, gave a talk on how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts the modern workplace at Centre Mont-Royal. Lecun discussed the development of artificial intelligence in the 21st century. Lecun began with a description of deep learning, a procedure… Keep Reading
Starting on Friday, Sept. 22, McGill University hosted Startup Weekend, an entrepreneurship competition where participants pitched, designed, and polished inventive ideas for businesses within a 54-hour time frame. The competition, held in Thomson House, was the first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-themed Startup Weekend in Canada. Alex Smirnov, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Dialogue, a virtual… Keep Reading
Researchers in the Douglas Mental Health University Institute’s Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory at McGill have created an artificial intelligence-based algorithm to recognize dementia before its onset—an elusive task, even for neurologists. The algorithm uses statistics to learn what the determining markers of the disease are—a process called machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence. With a… Keep Reading
While deep in conversation with your childhood best friend, you catch glimpse of a frayed wire and grey hinge protruding from the side of their neck. “I thought you knew,” they calmly remark at your gaze. Suddenly they swing the hinge open to reveal an intricate set of wires and flashing lights hiding behind what… Keep Reading
Facebook announced that it would be basing its first Canadian research laboratory in Montreal at a press conference at McGill’s Faculty Club on Friday Sept. 15. The city is home to the offices of many tech companies—including Google and Ubisoft—and the city’s burgeoning tech industry has received millions in investments from the government. Various stakeholders—including… Keep Reading
Within the first 24 hours of the AI for Social Good Hackathon on the weekend of June 17, Scarlett Muguthi, a 2017 McGill Computer Science graduate, Aanika Rahman, U3 Science, and four other team members had transformed a project idea into a functioning application: A chatbot that translates text to sign language using artificial intelligence… Keep Reading
Google has solidified Montreal’s newly-attained reputation as an international epicentre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research by investing $4.5 million in the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, a research lab at the University of Montreal (UdeM). Artificial Intelligence refers to computer systems performing tasks by mimicking human cognition, including visual or speech recognition, and advanced forms… Keep Reading
Marvin Minsky, the MIT scientist, philosopher, and author, passed away last week at the age of 88, from a cerebral hemorrhage. Known around his campus as “Old Man Minsky,” he was a pioneer in a number of fields from cognitive and computer science to philosophy of mind and information theory. He is best remembered, however,… Keep Reading
In Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the protagonist, astronaut Dr. David Bowman, has a standoff with his spacecraft’s artificial intelligence (AI) system, HAL. After discussing plans with a fellow astronaut onboard to deactivate HAL, Bowman attempts to re-enter the spacecraft from an external rescue mission. However, he is prevented from doing… Keep Reading
