Richard Zemel / en TD Bank embraces AI future with purchase of startup built by 91³Ō¹Ļ alumni /news/td-bank-embraces-ai-future-purchase-startup-built-u-t-alumni <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">TD Bank embraces AI future with purchase of startup built by 91³Ō¹Ļ alumni</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-01-10-TD-Bank-towers-Jason-Paris-via-Flickr-%28web-lead%29-.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FJbPUbkD 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-01-10-TD-Bank-towers-Jason-Paris-via-Flickr-%28web-lead%29-.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=MDBQyZO4 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-01-10-TD-Bank-towers-Jason-Paris-via-Flickr-%28web-lead%29-.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=PF_SIK4d 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-01-10-TD-Bank-towers-Jason-Paris-via-Flickr-%28web-lead%29-.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FJbPUbkD" alt="Photo of TD Centre"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-01-10T12:08:49-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - 12:08" class="datetime">Wed, 01/10/2018 - 12:08</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">TD Bank, headquartered at the TD Centre in downtown Toronto, is purchasing Layer 6 for an undisclosed sum (photo by JasonParis via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sorensen" hreflang="en">Chris Sorensen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dublin-awards-faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Dublin Awards. Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geoffrey-hinton" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Hinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/richard-zemel" hreflang="en">Richard Zemel</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>One of Canadaā€™s biggest banks has purchased a promising artificial intelligence, or AI, startup that was co-founded by two 91³Ō¹Ļ alumni and a local lawyer and entrepreneur&nbsp;ā€“ further evidence of how big corporations are eager to scoop up the country's top AI talent.</p> <p>TD Bank said this week that it has agreed to buy Layer 6 for an undisclosed sum, although the <em>Globe and Mail</em> cites sources who say the price tag was in excess of $100 million when retention payments&nbsp;to employees are included.</p> <p>The acquisition comes as the bank seeks to cut costs by using AI to automate repetitive tasks and scan large datasets in search of patterns that can help it better understand its customers.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;ā€œWeā€™ve talked a lot in the past about disruption and what would happen to banks, and ā€˜Are your business models broken?ā€™ā€ Bharat Masrani, the bankā€™s CEO, said at an industry conference in Toronto, according to the <em>Globe</em>.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œAnd I say, ā€˜This [acquisition] is a great example of how TDā€™s adapting to this new reality and new expectation, and how we are remaining on the leading edge with our customers.ā€™</p> <h3><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/td-adds-to-tech-capabilities-with-100-million-deal-for-ai-firm-layer-6/article37545416/">Read more about TD's deal to purchase Layer 6 in the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <h3><a href="https://betakit.com/td-acquires-layer-6-in-canadian-ai-talent-grab/">Read more about TD's deal to purchase Layer 6 at <em>Betakit</em></a></h3> <p>Layer 6 uses machine learning technologies to help businesses better anticipate their customersā€™ needs, and won an international competition for best recommendation system last summer. The startup was co-founded 2016 by Jordan Jacobs and 91³Ō¹Ļ alumni <strong>Tomi Poutanen</strong>, who holds both a master's&nbsp;in applied science and an MBA from 91³Ō¹Ļ, as well as <strong>Maksims Volkovs</strong>, who received three degrees from 91³Ō¹Ļ, including a PhD in machine learning.</p> <p>Both Jacobs and Poutanen played a key role in the creation of the Vector Institute for artificial intelligence research alongside AI researchers like <strong>Richard Zemel,</strong> a professor in 91³Ō¹Ļ's department computer science,&nbsp;and <strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong>, a 91³Ō¹Ļ <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a> Emeritus who has been dubbed by some as the ā€œgodfatherā€ of deep learning.&nbsp;</p> <p>TD Bank is the latest in a long list of companies&nbsp;competing for the top AI talent generated at places like 91³Ō¹Ļ. Others include Silicon Valley heavyweights&nbsp;Google, Facebook and Microsoft.&nbsp;</p> <p>While some have expressed concern about a new ā€œbrain drain," Jacobs told the <em>Globe </em>the Layer 6 deal presented an opportunity for a Canadian company to ā€œleap aheadā€ and become a world leader.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œWe wanted to build something significant in Canada,ā€ he said.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 10 Jan 2018 17:08:49 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 126983 at Where is AI headed in 2018? Your phone will know you better than your friends do, 91³Ō¹Ļ researcher predicts /news/where-ai-headed-2018-your-phone-will-know-you-better-your-friends-do-u-t-researcher-predicts <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Where is AI headed in 2018? Your phone will know you better than your friends do, 91³Ō¹Ļ researcher predicts</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UofT12856_20170317_RichardZemel_%28web-lead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=d1m6nl0M 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/UofT12856_20170317_RichardZemel_%28web-lead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=RoYghFHC 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/UofT12856_20170317_RichardZemel_%28web-lead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=V-2GjlMV 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UofT12856_20170317_RichardZemel_%28web-lead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=d1m6nl0M" alt="Photo of Richard Zemel"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-01-04T10:05:18-05:00" title="Thursday, January 4, 2018 - 10:05" class="datetime">Thu, 01/04/2018 - 10:05</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Richard Zemel is a 91³Ō¹Ļ professor of computer science and the Vector Institute's research director (photo by Johnny Guatto)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sorensen" hreflang="en">Chris Sorensen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/creative-destruction-lab" hreflang="en">Creative Destruction Lab</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geoffrey-hinton" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Hinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/richard-zemel" hreflang="en">Richard Zemel</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/technology" hreflang="en">Technology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>From self-driving cars to finding disease cures, artificial intelligence, or AI, has rapidly emerged as a potentially revolutionary technology ā€“ and the pace of innovation is only set to speed up.&nbsp;</p> <p>To get a sense of where the field is headed in 2018,&nbsp;<em>91³Ō¹Ļ News</em> sat down with the 91³Ō¹Ļ's <strong>Richard Zemel</strong>, a professor of computer science and the research director at the Vector Institute for artificial intelligence research.&nbsp;</p> <p>He was just back from the annual Neural Information and Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Long Beach, Calif. ā€“ <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-06/demand-for-ai-talent-turns-once-staid-conference-into-draft-day">a once staid academic gathering thatā€™s more than tripled in size over the past five years</a>, drawing dozens of giant corporations.&nbsp;</p> <p>Zemelā€™s take? Get ready for a world where businesses enjoy unprecedented insight into their products and services, Toronto continues its ascent as a major AI research hub, and digital assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa become ultra-personalized.</p> <p>ā€œIt will be like being friends with someone for many years,ā€&nbsp;predicts Zemel, who spoke on the sidelines of an event at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), one of 91³Ō¹Ļ's numerous entrepreneurship hubs. ā€œThe computer or phone may know more about you, potentially, than anyone else.ā€</p> <hr> <p><strong>What can we expect to happen in AI over the next 12 months?&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>One of the things that will affect people in their daily lives will be personalization. People know about personalized assistants like Alexa and Siri, but those are just the first generation. Theyā€™re going to get a lot better in the next six to 12 months. They will be able to really understand what youā€™re asking and be able to formulate answers and get to know you better ā€“ not just look things up in your calendar or on the web.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Is that a function of improved speech recognition capabilities?</strong></p> <p>Speech will be part of it. But thereā€™s all this other information about you thatā€™s available. Itā€™s your daily habits, what you do and where you go. So, if people allow it ā€“ if you give it access to your emails and photos, what you look at online, watch on TV and the books you read ā€“ itā€™s going to be a much bigger package. It will be like being friends with someone for many years. The computer or phone may know more about you, potentially, than anyone else. So itā€™s a question of combining all that information and getting a real profile of your tastes.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Beyond personal assistants, thereā€™s a lot of other industries that are potentially going to be impacted by this technology, if they arenā€™t already. What other sectors do you think we may be hearing about?</strong></p> <p>Education is one example. There will be more systems that learn how you learn best. These could be online learning tools that are custom tailored to you. There will also be lots of manufacturing applications. Here at CDL, thereā€™s a lot of companies who are using sensing technologies to find out whatā€™s happening in the environment ā€“ ranging from smart cities down to a company I was just chatting with thatā€™s putting sensors in cowsā€™ milk to determine how healthy it is. All of these things that were typically very expensive to assess can now be done with a few sensors and a lot of training data.</p> <p>Medicine is another area where you have a ton of data, although thereā€™s a lot of privacy and data-sharing issues in that. The big companies like Microsoft and Google have talked for years about getting into it, but theyā€™ve always stopped because of privacy issues. But I think thereā€™s enough momentum now that there will be progress in health, ranging from health records to medical imaging diagnoses and robotics in surgery.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>On the research side, which areas do you find exciting right now?</strong></p> <p>One of the most exciting areas ā€“ and it's reflected in the research Iā€™m doing&nbsp;ā€“ is called transfer learning. Thatā€™s the idea of performing a new task without a lot of training data. This has a lot of applications in business. Letā€™s say a robot has to climb hills and take out the garbage, and it has a lot of data itā€™s trained on to do that. But now you give it a new task ā€“ moving a bin from one place to another, and itā€™s never done that before. So now it has to transfer its knowledge to this new task. The novel thing here is youā€™re training it with a huge amount of data, but youā€™re testing it on something else.</p> <p><strong>Iā€™m guessing thatā€™s more difficult to accomplish than it sounds.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>Exactly. Thatā€™s the interesting piece in all of this. The things that seem easy to us, because people do them naturally, are typically the biggest challenge for these systems. Thatā€™s true for perception and speech. I mean, we speak pretty easily, but itā€™s taken computers a long time to figure out speech and produce speech. All these things we take for granted are big challenges.</p> <p><strong>Any other areas of research interest?</strong></p> <p>Another one goes back to what we were saying about personalization. If it takes off, you will need to allow the [AI] system to see all your personal details. So it becomes a question of whether youā€™re going to be hesitant to release your personal details because of privacy and fairness issues. So thereā€™s a lot of research now ā€“ a really growing field ā€“ called fairness in machine learning. I do lot of research in this. In past years, there were just two or three papers at NIPS. This year there were 20.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Is this a technical issue or an ethical one?</strong></p> <p>Itā€™s both. Itā€™s an ethical and societal issue to define what it means to be fair, but the technical issue is how do you build a machine learning system that embodies those principles? Itā€™s a very interesting area. The challenge is defining it in a good way, and then you take this definition and formalize it into a mathematical statement we can use to train up the machine learning.</p> <p>Thereā€™s also a field called FAT ML, which is fairness, accountability and transparency in machine learning. Thatā€™s going beyond fairness and privacy to ask whether you can get explanations from the system, so it can be useful for doctors and lawyers. In those high-risk situations, you need systems that are more interpretable. Thatā€™s an increasingly important direction, too.</p> <p><strong>[91³Ō¹Ļ <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a> Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton made a statement last year about how the current paradigm for deep learning needs to be thrown out the window so we can start over. What do you make of his comments and what should the rest of us make of them?</strong></p> <p>What heā€™s talking about actually follows a trend in machine learning. And thatā€™s to build more structure into the system. Now, a lot of people donā€™t like that point of view. They think of it as a plain vanilla system and you should allow it to learn everything. But heā€™s saying you actually need to build in some structure ā€“ capsule networks ā€“ where you learn about parts of objects and some parameters associated with them and how theyā€™re related. Thereā€™s a lot of work in that area. Thereā€™s always been this debate between a sort of<em> tabula rasa</em> view of learning to something where you start with some structure and learn on top of it. So throwing out current deep learning might mean, in my view, that you want to incorporate some sort of structure and the key question is: Whatā€™s the right structure?</p> <p><strong>AI has been a big story for 91³Ō¹Ļ and Toronto, particularly with the creation of the Vector Institute last year. Can you give me an update on what will be happening at Vector in 2018?</strong></p> <p>Itā€™s exciting. We finally have the space to move into with desks, chairs and everything. People were worried we wouldnā€™t have enough critical mass to get going. But, actually, when we put it all together, there will be 90 people moving in, including students, post-docs and faculty. And thatā€™s just the full-time people. There will be a lot affiliates coming in part-time from other parts of Toronto and the province, including the Universities of Guelph, Waterloo and McMaster. Itā€™s going to be a real hub of AI activity. Weā€™ll do some growing as well, hiring some additional research scientists and bringing in a new batch of grad students in September. Weā€™re hiring some post-docs, as well as software and research engineers.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>How will the relationship between Vector and 91³Ō¹Ļ work?</strong></p> <p>The idea is people will be working at 91³Ō¹Ļ in their faculties, but are also cross-appointed to Vector, so they will move back and forth. Many will also have students whose main desks will be at Vector, but they will also be teaching and holding talks on campus. The way I think about it is as an additional facility with a lot of good researchers who will facilitate collaboration.</p> <p><strong>In a broader sense, how do you see the concept of an AI hub developing in Toronto?</strong></p> <p>Thereā€™s a lot of AI around. A lot of the hospitals are doing AI and health is an application that weā€™re very interested in at Vector. Weā€™re going to try and co-ordinate things to get the hospitals working and talking with each other and sharing data. We could also play an important role working with businesses when it comes to finding talent. One of our main aims is graduating masterā€™s and PhD students. Weā€™re not going to co-ordinate all AI, but we can be an important resource and hub for research.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>What do you think are the misconceptions rattling around out there about AI?&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>One thing people donā€™t realize is that machine learning systems, the way they are right now, require a lot of data and a lot of labelled data ā€“ thousands of examples with annotations. If you donā€™t have that&nbsp;then youā€™re in the research field, not the applications field. People need to know that. You need a lot of data.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Is it difficult to get access to sufficient data in a less populous country like Canada?</strong></p> <p>Not really. Thereā€™s data everywhere. Itā€™s just a question of harnessing it and figuring out how to get labels. Weā€™re big players in this. People are trying to emulate whatā€™s going on here. I had meetings with top people all over Europe, asking ā€œHow did you do Vector? We want to copy you.ā€ I think weā€™re sitting on a model for the rest of the world.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 04 Jan 2018 15:05:18 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 126378 at #UofTGrad17: 91³Ō¹Ļ AI grads choose Toronto /news/uoftgrad17-u-t-ai-grads-choose-toronto <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">#UofTGrad17: 91³Ō¹Ļ AI grads choose Toronto</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/kevin-swersky.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KILdq7gP 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/kevin-swersky.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cAv23Vrp 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/kevin-swersky.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4R4z5Buc 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/kevin-swersky.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KILdq7gP" alt="Kevin Swersky"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-06-08T14:46:00-04:00" title="Thursday, June 8, 2017 - 14:46" class="datetime">Thu, 06/08/2017 - 14:46</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Kevin Swersky graduates with a PhD in computer science today. He's joining Google Brain in Toronto (photo by Johnny Guatto) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/nina-haikara" hreflang="en">Nina Haikara</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Nina Haikara</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/convocation-2017" hreflang="en">Convocation 2017</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/convocation" hreflang="en">Convocation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geoffrey-hinton" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Hinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/richard-zemel" hreflang="en">Richard Zemel</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>With Torontoā€™s emerging&nbsp;prominence in&nbsp;AI, three 91³Ō¹Ļ computer science graduates are deciding to stay put ā€“<span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span>a marked departure from earlier years when grads were often lured to Silicon Valley.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Kevin Swersky</strong>, who graduates&nbsp;with a PhD in computer science today, has worked with leading AI researchers like 91³Ō¹Ļā€™s <strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong> and <strong>Richard Zemel</strong>.<strong> </strong>He is&nbsp;joining Google Brainā€™s team in Toronto.</p> <p><strong>Rizwan Gilani</strong>, who came to 91³Ō¹Ļ as an international student from Pakistan, graduates&nbsp;June 14&nbsp;with a master's degree in applied computing. He was able to transfer&nbsp;a research internship&nbsp;in Seattle, working on&nbsp;Amazonā€™s smart speaker, into a full-time job. He&nbsp;now works for Amazon&nbsp;in Toronto.</p> <p>And <strong>Eda Doko</strong>, who will also be receiving a master's degree next week,&nbsp;has been hired as a data scientist with Caseware, a company focused on software solutions for accountants and auditors.</p> <p>ā€œWhen the opportunity presented itself, it was really exciting,ā€ says Swersky, who until recently was working with Google Brain's team in Cambridge, Mass.&nbsp;ā€œA lot has changed, particularly with the announcement of the <a href="/news/vector-institute-points-toronto-global-hot-spot-ai-research">Vector Institute</a> ā€“ something has&nbsp;changed in Toronto.ā€&nbsp;</p> <p>Toronto has emerged as a hotspot for AI research in recent years ā€“ particularly in the field of deep learning, which was pioneered by Hinton. Further adding to the appeal: the recent launch of the Vector Institute for artificial intelligence research, a partnership between 91³Ō¹Ļ, the province of Ontario and the federal government.</p> <p>Last month,&nbsp;<a href="/news/u-t-s-self-driving-vehicle-superstar-lead-uber-s-new-research-lab-toronto">Uber announced</a> it was tapping&nbsp;<strong>Raquel Urtasun</strong>, an associate professor of computer science at 91³Ō¹Ļ, to lead its&nbsp;new R&amp;D lab in Toronto. And, this week AI-powered legal research firm ROSS Intelligence, a 91³Ō¹Ļ startup that relocated to Silicon Valley, held an official ribbon-cutting ceremony at U&nbsp;of T for its new R&amp;D office in Toronto. &nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œToronto is emerging as an AI research hub,ā€ says applied computing graduand&nbsp;Gilani. ā€œI already have family here ā€“ so everything just added up for me.ā€</p> <p>Gilani discovered his interest in natural language processing (NLP), a subfield of AI and cognitive linguistics, the science of computers interacting with human language, while he was enrolled in a&nbsp;graduate course taught by<strong> Frank Rudzicz</strong>, a computer science assistant professor who also works as a scientist at the&nbsp;Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œWhile taking Dr. Rudziczā€™s course, I was sure I wanted to work in NLP. I wanted to work on building scalable systems out of all the things we were studying in the class.ā€</p> <p>Gilani undertook his applied research internship requirement at Amazon ā€œAlexaā€ in Seattle, working on the voice service behind Amazonā€™s ā€œsmart speaker,ā€&nbsp;Echo. He'll now be working at Amazon Alexa's Toronto office.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œThe office is downtown, close to 91³Ō¹Ļ campus,ā€ he says. ā€œItā€™s the best of both worlds.&nbsp;I can stay close to the university and upcoming research, and can continue my development work.ā€</p> <p>Doko, who lived for a time in her parentā€™s native country of Albania, returned to Toronto for university.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œ91³Ō¹Ļā€™s the best ā€“ and the applied masterā€™s was the perfect opportunity. It gave me the perfect path to launch my career,ā€ she said.</p> <p>Swerskyā€™s collaborations read as a whoā€™s-who of AI.</p> <p>His PhD supervisor is&nbsp;Zemel, who is the research director of Vector.</p> <p>Former 91³Ō¹Ļ postdoctoral researcher&nbsp;<strong>Hugo Larochelle</strong>, who now leads Google's Montreal group, <strong>Ryan Prescott Adams</strong>, also a former 91³Ō¹Ļ postdoc, and 91³Ō¹Ļ computer science graduate <strong>Jasper Snoek</strong>, both of Google Brain Cambridge, are his long-time colleagues, as is 91³Ō¹Ļ computer science graduate&nbsp;<strong>Danny Tarlow </strong>of&nbsp;Google Brain Montreal.&nbsp;</p> <p>He has worked&nbsp;with Hinton, a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">University Professor</a>&nbsp;Emeritus and vice president,&nbsp;engineering fellow at Google, who incidentally helped recruit him to 91³Ō¹Ļā€™s grad program. Being at&nbsp;Googleā€™s Toronto office will offer a special opportunity to collaborate&nbsp;with Hinton&nbsp;again, Swersky says.&nbsp;</p> <p>He&nbsp;first joined Google as an intern&nbsp;in 2012, working on the speech recognition team.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œIt was a year after a previous 91³Ō¹Ļ computer science graduate, <strong>Navdeep Jaitly</strong>, had gone to Google and helped revolutionize their speech recognition system,ā€ he says. ā€œIt was an exciting time. I got to work a bit on deep learning for speech recognition, in a real-world system.ā€&nbsp;</p> <p>Being back in Toronto&nbsp;means Swersky can be closer to family and enjoy more of Torontoā€™s ramen food scene with his girlfriend.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œI grew up in Edmonton. Lived in Vancouver. Spent the summer in San Francisco. Lived in Boston and Toronto. You kind of get a feel for all these different places and an intuitive sense of your place in them,ā€ he says.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œItā€™s hard to explain, but something that just feels innate ā€“&nbsp;Toronto feels like coming home.ā€</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 08 Jun 2017 18:46:00 +0000 ullahnor 108260 at Rise of the machines: 91³Ō¹Ļ emerges as "ground zero" for the next wave of transformative technologies /news/rise-machines-u-t-emerges-ground-zero-next-wave-transformative-technologies <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Rise of the machines: 91³Ō¹Ļ emerges as "ground zero" for the next wave of transformative technologies</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Big%20data%20illustration%20by%20Marcos%20Gasparutti%20via%20Flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=mblj-YVT 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Big%20data%20illustration%20by%20Marcos%20Gasparutti%20via%20Flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=J2pg604l 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Big%20data%20illustration%20by%20Marcos%20Gasparutti%20via%20Flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8ivtwzVr 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Big%20data%20illustration%20by%20Marcos%20Gasparutti%20via%20Flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=mblj-YVT" alt="Big data "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-05-16T08:19:23-04:00" title="Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - 08:19" class="datetime">Tue, 05/16/2017 - 08:19</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Department of Computer Science Innovation Labā€™s (DCSIL) recent Funding Innovation conference featured speakers talking about new emerging technologies (photo illustration by Marcos Gasparutti via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sorensen" hreflang="en">Chris Sorensen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Chris Sorensen</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/virtual-reality" hreflang="en">Virtual Reality</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startup" hreflang="en">Startup</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/raquel-urtasun" hreflang="en">Raquel Urtasun</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geoffrey-hinton" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Hinton</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/richard-zemel" hreflang="en">Richard Zemel</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Conference explores how artificial intelligence, machine learning and other computing technologies are poised to change everything</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Some of the worldā€™s biggest companies, from banks to carmakers, are poised to have their businesses transformed&nbsp;by new computing technologies ā€“ many of which are being developed at the 91³Ō¹Ļ.&nbsp;</p> <p>John Ruffolo, the CEO of OMERS Ventures, delivered the message to a packed room at the <a href="https://www.dcsil.ca/">Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab</a>ā€™s (DCSIL) recent <a href="https://www.dcsil.ca/fic">Funding Innovation</a> conference.&nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œ91³Ō¹Ļ, over the past few years, has really exploded,ā€ Ruffolo said, referring to the research and startups emerging in areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain technologies, among others. ā€œIt really is ground zero.ā€</p> <p>Ruffolo then laid out OMERS Venturesā€™&nbsp;plan to focus on five broad areas of innovation where 91³Ō¹Ļ students and faculty are making a big impact: e-commerce, fintech, automation of work, autonomous vehicles and synthetic biology.</p> <p>ā€œThe rate of change is unprecedented,ā€ Ruffolo said. ā€œDisruption is happening at a pace thatā€™s hard to keep up to.ā€</p> <p>With $800 million under management, OMERS Ventures is the venture capital arm of one of Canadaā€™s largest pension funds. It has made investments in such high-profile startups as Shopify, Hootsuite and D2L, among others.</p> <p><strong>Mario Grech</strong>, a director and co-founder of DCSIL, one of 10 accelerators on campus,&nbsp;said the organization has&nbsp;been ā€œinundatedā€ with calls from the global entrepreneurship community, and is also getting recognition from Silicon Valley.</p> <p>The same is true of 91³Ō¹Ļ's department of computer science. Associate Professor <strong>Raquel Urtasun</strong> was <a href="/news/u-t-s-self-driving-vehicle-superstar-lead-uber-s-new-research-lab-toronto">recently tapped by Uber</a> to lead its new research lab in Toronto, which will focus on self-driving vehicles. Similarly, <strong>Geoffrey Hinton</strong>, <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors.htm">a University Professor Emeritus</a>, referred to as the ā€œgodfatherā€ of deep learning, was hired by Google four years ago. Both are key figures at the recently launched <a href="http://vectorinstitute.ai/">Vector Institute</a> in Toronto, a collaboration between Ottawa, the province of Ontario, 91³Ō¹Ļ and industry partners. The institute aims to promote research and commercialization of AI technologies, a field where Canada is widely regarded as a leader.&nbsp;</p> <p>The day-long conference consisted of a series of panel discussions that featured 91³Ō¹Ļ researchers, industry leaders and startup founders.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Richard Zemel</strong>, a professor in 91³Ō¹Ļā€™s department of computer science and the Vector Instituteā€™s head of research, was among those who weighed in some of the ethical questions AI faces, including how to keep tabs on computers that&nbsp;are increasingly capable of learning without human input. &nbsp;</p> <p>ā€œGood AI is one that be controlled by the outside,ā€ he said.</p> <p>Others spoke about the challenges facing those charged with keeping peopleā€™s information safe online. The topic turned out to be extremely timely as the worldā€™s biggest cyberattack ā€“&nbsp;dubbed ā€œWannaCryā€&nbsp;ā€“&nbsp;began to unfurl across 150 countries shortly after the panelā€™s members&nbsp;including<strong> Kumar Murty</strong>, a professor of mathematics, took the stage.</p> <p>The so-called ā€œtrough of disillusionmentā€ surrounding augmented and virtual reality technologies was another hot topic. The term refers to the period of disappointment that follows the initial hype surrounding a new technology development.&nbsp;In VRā€™s case, excitement over the propsects for the technology soared following Facebookā€™s US$2 billion purchase of VR headset-maker Oculus Rift back in 2014.</p> <p>ā€œWe havenā€™t seen a whole lot of capital go into these companies so far, but thatā€™s going to change,ā€ promised Prashant Matta, a senior associate at OMERS Ventures.</p> <p>One example of whatā€™s coming down the pipe: <a href="http://janusvr.com/">JanusVR</a>, a company co-founded by <strong>Karan Singh</strong>, a 91³Ō¹Ļ computer science professor, is reimagining the Internet as a virtual world where content is explored by walking through different rooms.</p> <p>Why do its proponents believe VR is still a revolution-in-waiting?</p> <p><strong>Matt McPherson</strong> is&nbsp;a 91³Ō¹Ļ alum who is now working for Toronto's Quantum Capture, which seeks to make more realistic human representations inside virtual reality experiences. He recalls one particularly&nbsp;perspective-altering moment during a VR experience: ā€œThis avatar turned to me and said, ā€˜Hey buddy.ā€™ It was so spooky because I was sitting alone in my office, but I was no longer by myself.ā€</p> <h3><a href="http://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/">Learn more about Entrepreneurship at 91³Ō¹Ļ</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 16 May 2017 12:19:23 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 107650 at