AI is seeing strong growth in Montreal

The organisation, which is supported by the Universities of Montreal and McGill, now has 87 professors, more than double that in 2019. With more than 800 researchers and students, it will be One of the largest gathering of undergraduate researchers in deep learning in the world. The university’s funding in Montreal amounts to more than $1.34 billion, making it the leading Canadian city in this field.

Mila in its current form was established in 2017. Its President and CEO شعر It is important to make an evaluation. Valerie Pisano reports that Mila has tripled in three years, scientifically, economically and socially.

« Corporate adoption of AI, we talk about it and we talk about it, but here, something is laid out. More and more people are adopting it to incorporate it into their service projects. »

Since March 2020, the number of industrial partners such as IBM has increased from 42 to 84, and Mila now has 46 startups among its members. About thirty technology giants, such as Facebook, Google, Ericsson, Microsoft and Samsung, have established artificial intelligence research centers in recent years in Montreal.

As for Quebec’s loss of ownership over Element AI and the resulting suppression of many positions, Valerie Pisano admits that pause moment was necessary. The bottom line is that there will be other unicorns, she believes. You remember that the majority of researchers at the defunct company are still based in Quebec under the ServiceNow banner.

Attractive talent

In 2020 alone, at least 3,500 new jobs were created in the sector in Quebec, with a growth of 22% contributing $385 million to GDP. AI now collects nearly 20,000 direct jobs in the region. From 2018 to 2020, more than $1.7 billion in venture capital was invested in young AI companies in Quebec.

If the workforce in many fields today is difficult to obtain, imagine that in artificial intelligence, which requires advanced skills at the master’s or doctoral level.

About 70% of the students at Mila come from abroad, and the fame of Yoshua Bengio, founder of the institute and scientific director of the institute, has not been in vain. Spanish postdoctoral researcher Alex Hernandez Garcia on Mr. Bengio Ref Based on The most important person in artificial intelligence.

« It was important to me to come here because of Mila’s values, as we use research to make a positive impact in society and fight climate change. »

Artificial intelligence aims, among other things, to teach computer functions to automate certain tasks. The possibilities are endless, from voice assistants to make your everyday life easier to speeding up your healthy search and Fighting sexual exploitation On-line.

Recently, Mila offered residents a A tool to visualize the greenhouse effect In your home, workplace, and more.

Tightly woven ecosystem

All companies that rely on artificial intelligence are convinced of the power of Montreal’s position on the planet.

The 40-strong Google R&D team in the capital is trying to develop new products through reinforcement learning. President and researcher Marc Bellemare mentions machine translation as an important research direction here.

He points out that the deep learning – or machine learning – carried out by Joshua Bengio enabled Montreal to find a place for itself. nerve center In the world.

He says we’ve made many fundamental discoveries that are ubiquitous today. We have many students from Montreal and McGill Universities who have secured important positions in Silicon Valley. We are fully integrated with the rest of the scientific and corporate community.

US company BusPatrol, headed by Quebecer Jean Sollier, chose to set up its technology development center in Montreal last year. The company supplies school buses with smart cameras to monitor dangerous motorists.

In Quebec, we have the creativity of the workforce that, combined with the bureaucratic speed of the United States, allows us to have a fantastic platform for growth.Mr. Bellemare explains.

In telecommunications, Ericsson is integrating artificial intelligence into the deployment of 5G infrastructure networks. Among the 1,000 workers in Montreal, about thirty workers belong to the Experience Center, which was established in 2019.

Site manager Paul Baptista says 5G networks are getting more complex to manage on a human level and algorithms help To detect, interact and make decisions. Montreal, he said, offers this expertise in artificial intelligence thanks to Several winning conditions Such as government participation and university training.

The Swedish multinational will formalize a partnership with Concordia University on Thursday to share data and technology challenges, then in return raise the level of skills in artificial intelligence among its employees. We will work with teachers to build in-depth training for our non-professional staff.Mr. Baptista says.