CNBC: Trump driving software engineers to Toronto
BeaverFever @ Sat May 06, 2017 5:37 pm
$1:
One reason more software engineers are heading to Toronto: Trump
The U.S. and China will now have to compete with Canada for AI talent.
Vector Institute wants to establish Toronto as a hub for AI innovation.
Machine learning and deep learning researchers at Vector Institute will work with the government and corporations to solve everyday problems.
The Vector Institute in Toronto has only been around for a few weeks, and it is already attracting top machine learning talent from Silicon Valley.
One reason for this: President Donald Trump.
"Geopolitics is playing a part, as people contacting us have said 'I don't want to live in the U.S.,'" Jordan Jacobs, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC.
The Trump administration's recent battles over immigration have made some people feel unwelcome, and others more hesitant to move to the U.S. to do research in artificial intelligence.
"People have been emailing and calling to ask: When can I send my application?" Raquel Urtasun, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC.
The institute is an independent research facility dedicated to artificial intelligence, launched in March of this year. It's raised $180 million from both the Canadian government and corporations to create a hybrid structure, which gives researchers the flexibility to do research while pursuing commercial business opportunities like consulting.
Yet Trump isn't the only reason A.I. experts are ready to call Toronto home.
"Toronto is a dynamic city, and it is culturally diverse with over 50 percent of the people here born outside of Canada. Regardless of where you come from this is a community," said Jacobs. While the cost of living is pretty high in Toronto, it is more affordable than Silicon Valley, New York and London.
"Plus, public schools are very good and healthcare is free," said Jacobs. "I came to Canada and fell in love with the country...and I've lived all over the world," added Urtasun.
Urtasun is currently doing research into machine perception, with a focus on making autonomous vehicles safer. "Robotics, natural language, machine learning, deep learning, or what some call AI technology is our core focus," said Urtasun.
Toronto's deep roots in A.I. has brought talent to the area for years." Many of the best people in deep learning and machine learning come from University of Toronto, following in the footsteps of deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton," said Jacobs. Some of Hinton's former students include the directors of A.I. research at both Facebook and Apple.
In the race to grab A.I. talent, the main players up until now have been the U.S. and China. As Canada and other countries join the competition, it could become harder for America to recruit and retain these workers. "Globally there is a shortage of researchers. We would like to hire 5,000 machine learning PhDs and Master's graduates in the next five years," said Jacobs.
Urtasun says the Institute wants to graduate the most PhD and Master's students globally and establish Toronto as the epicenter for A.I. innovation. "We identified a need for creating an ecosystem in Toronto that will allow people to stay in the area instead of going to Silicon Valley," she said.
Google recently announced it will be opening an A.I. lab in Toronto, and it is one of many companies expected to work alongside Vector in the A.I. race. "We get an endless stream of requests from founding corporate partners — banks, telecom, airlines etc. — seeking research collaborations to use machine learning for problems including healthcare, logistics issues, smart cities and computer vision," said Jacobs.
"Our biggest problem is that we don't yet have enough people to take on all of the opportunity," he added.
The U.S. and China will now have to compete with Canada for AI talent.
Vector Institute wants to establish Toronto as a hub for AI innovation.
Machine learning and deep learning researchers at Vector Institute will work with the government and corporations to solve everyday problems.
The Vector Institute in Toronto has only been around for a few weeks, and it is already attracting top machine learning talent from Silicon Valley.
One reason for this: President Donald Trump.
"Geopolitics is playing a part, as people contacting us have said 'I don't want to live in the U.S.,'" Jordan Jacobs, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC.
The Trump administration's recent battles over immigration have made some people feel unwelcome, and others more hesitant to move to the U.S. to do research in artificial intelligence.
"People have been emailing and calling to ask: When can I send my application?" Raquel Urtasun, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC.
The institute is an independent research facility dedicated to artificial intelligence, launched in March of this year. It's raised $180 million from both the Canadian government and corporations to create a hybrid structure, which gives researchers the flexibility to do research while pursuing commercial business opportunities like consulting.
Yet Trump isn't the only reason A.I. experts are ready to call Toronto home.
"Toronto is a dynamic city, and it is culturally diverse with over 50 percent of the people here born outside of Canada. Regardless of where you come from this is a community," said Jacobs. While the cost of living is pretty high in Toronto, it is more affordable than Silicon Valley, New York and London.
"Plus, public schools are very good and healthcare is free," said Jacobs. "I came to Canada and fell in love with the country...and I've lived all over the world," added Urtasun.
Urtasun is currently doing research into machine perception, with a focus on making autonomous vehicles safer. "Robotics, natural language, machine learning, deep learning, or what some call AI technology is our core focus," said Urtasun.
Toronto's deep roots in A.I. has brought talent to the area for years." Many of the best people in deep learning and machine learning come from University of Toronto, following in the footsteps of deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton," said Jacobs. Some of Hinton's former students include the directors of A.I. research at both Facebook and Apple.
In the race to grab A.I. talent, the main players up until now have been the U.S. and China. As Canada and other countries join the competition, it could become harder for America to recruit and retain these workers. "Globally there is a shortage of researchers. We would like to hire 5,000 machine learning PhDs and Master's graduates in the next five years," said Jacobs.
Urtasun says the Institute wants to graduate the most PhD and Master's students globally and establish Toronto as the epicenter for A.I. innovation. "We identified a need for creating an ecosystem in Toronto that will allow people to stay in the area instead of going to Silicon Valley," she said.
Google recently announced it will be opening an A.I. lab in Toronto, and it is one of many companies expected to work alongside Vector in the A.I. race. "We get an endless stream of requests from founding corporate partners — banks, telecom, airlines etc. — seeking research collaborations to use machine learning for problems including healthcare, logistics issues, smart cities and computer vision," said Jacobs.
"Our biggest problem is that we don't yet have enough people to take on all of the opportunity," he added.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/05/vector-i ... trump.html
Caelon @ Sun May 07, 2017 8:35 pm
The only people who want to move to Toronto are those who have never been there.
Of all the places I have lived in Canada that has to be the worst. Perhaps they can move the AI centre to at least Guelph or the Maritimes or west of Thunder Bay.
BeaverFever @ Sun May 07, 2017 9:04 pm
$1:
Toronto ranked fourth most livable city in the world
Published on Aug 18 2016
May Warren
METRO
Toronto has, again, been named one of the most livable cities in the world...
“The city is bustling, and is exciting, and is safe, and has great schools, and is a great place to live and so it scores very highly in these liveability rankings, “ he said. “But we essentially have been living on the benefits of infrastructure that was built decades ago.”
Overall, Toronto was ranked the fourth most livable city out of 140 around the world. The report gives perfect scores for stability, healthcare and education, while culture and environment garnered a 97.2.
.
Published on Aug 18 2016
May Warren
METRO
Toronto has, again, been named one of the most livable cities in the world...
“The city is bustling, and is exciting, and is safe, and has great schools, and is a great place to live and so it scores very highly in these liveability rankings, “ he said. “But we essentially have been living on the benefits of infrastructure that was built decades ago.”
Overall, Toronto was ranked the fourth most livable city out of 140 around the world. The report gives perfect scores for stability, healthcare and education, while culture and environment garnered a 97.2.
.
http://metronews.ca/#/article/news/toro ... world.html
richm @ Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:08 pm
Well, Toronto has become expensive in the past few years because of Chinese millionaires. Even the locals cannot afford it anymore.