4 ms·

Justin Trudeau explains why Canada really ‘gets’ AI and smart cities

40 points by lordr 9y ago

rublev 9y ago
>“I just think Canadians realize better than most that there is an opportunity here” We have no atmosphere of innovation because our salaries are garbage compared to the US. This is the problem, every single time. Most of my Canadian graduate friends work for US companies, some remotely. We literally do not have economic reasons to stay here. No amount of lip service will ever transform 100k into 300k. >“consequences of AI, the consequences of automation,” and the “economic imbalance of those who own the robots and those who are displaced by them.” Wasn't this shown to be a meme? That automation has already been happening very slowly, it's not going to be some sudden iRobot level change. Example: as a web dev now you only need one full stack guy to launch a production app, does the job of the designers, devops, frontend etc through various tooling that helped him automate processes that other developers would have done in the past. >Canadians have a tendency to travel, Trudeau said, and that results in a global outlook on how cities work and their different approaches to things like traffic and how people live in urban environments. More like I can make 3x for the same job here. I refer to my previous comment with respect to the waterfront, when will this tech bullshit be over? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15550745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15550745 This all reads like crap propaganda without saying anything, just some nice meaningless buzzwords. Actually it's even worse, looks like a paid for advertisement by Google and they have Trudeau in their pockets using him as an advertising puppet. Trudeau is a prime minister who was born into riches and surrounded by royal families since birth. This guy hasn't the faintest idea what he's talking about with anything related to real life much less tech or fucking AI. Nobody wants a 'smart city'. It'll just be another data mining project except now they will literally be optimizing your entire life for their profits. You can't meme a city into existence like all those cute little renders. Cities/villages have to rise up organically and then be tamed and incentivized to grow, not built with extreme robotic precision using data from the ground up. At best it's going to be some hip little place with crap corporate chain bars for working professionals just like it currently is cause that makes the most money, anything else is a pipe dream. Completely sterile and devoid of life, like all these projects turn out to be. >If the initiative proceeds, it would include at least 3.3 million square feet of residential, office and commercial space, including a new headquarters for Google Canada, in a district that would be a test bed for the combination of technology and urbanism. [0] [0] - https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/google-sidewalk-toronto-waterfront/article36612387/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com& https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/google-sidewal...
- yannickt 9y ago
  My thoughts exactly.
- agmcleod 9y ago
  > More like I can make 3x for the same job here. I know that silicon valley pays a fair bit, but cost to live there is also rather high. Is that true for most jobs across the US? I know developers in the US who are starting around similar salaries to myself, or lower in some cases. I agree with the rest of your points. Was hoping this to be more interesting than it was.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Cost of living is high in Vancouver and Toronto unfortunately. It doesn’t look better when salary is divided by COL, it looks worse. In the states, you’ll get a better deal pretty much wherever you live.
  - rublev 9y ago
    I'm talking gross salary offers are in the 2.5-3.5 range for me. Not factoring in QOL.
- frabbit 9y ago
  Nobody wants a 'smart city'. It'll just be another data mining project except now they will literally be optimizing your entire life for their profits. Exactly. And this will stifle any chance of innovation and reduce the anonymity and privacy which is necessary for democracy to work.
- CupOfJava 9y ago
  > We have no atmosphere of innovation because our salaries are garbage compared to the US. This is the problem, every single time. Most of my Canadian graduate friends work for US companies, some remotely. We literally do not have economic reasons to stay here. No amount of lip service will ever transform 100k into 300k. You can make 3x there? Why are you still here then? Instead of making up numbers, here's a more balanced opinion on salary differences between Waterloo and Silicon Valley: https://medium.com/@srlake/debunking-the-myth-of-higher-pay-in-silicon-valley-87828cbf6698 https://medium.com/@srlake/debunking-the-myth-of-higher-pay-...
yannickt 9y ago
Are there that many Canadian companies (as opposed to US companies with satellite offices in Canada) capitalizing on AI? If not, does Canada really "get it?"
- rublev 9y ago
  Absolutely not. Nevermind even starting to talk about a specific niche of tech like AI. Article is completely false on almost all counts.
- doctorRetro 9y ago
  Canadian here: I couldn't name one. I'm not a Trudeau hater (or fanboy, for that matter), but this is definitely all hollow lip service. Edit: I'm also not really sure what he means by "get it".
- jdross 9y ago
  Geoff Hinton is from University of Toronto. Waterloo is great source of talent as well
  - malandrew 9y ago
    U-Waterloo is its own special thing. It's hardly reflective of the rest of Canada. More universities need to take the U-Waterloo approach of work experience interspersed with academic study.
    - UseStrict 9y ago
      They do? A large number of Canadian universities offer co-op, either optional or integrated into their programs.
  - busterarm 9y ago
    But the provinces Canada most needs to develop right now are probably far less desirable to most UT & Waterloo grads than a move to the US.
  - deleted 9y ago
nilved 9y ago
Anyone who agrees with this hasn't lived in Canada.
aaron-lebo 9y ago
Don't see much insight here. Canadians love immigrants (apparently more than the US, but do numbers really play that out)? Canadians love to travel, too, apparently. It's a lot of vague rah-rah PR between Trudeau (who is the master of that) and a major CEO.
- throwaway613834 9y ago
  I'm worried Canada is just going to go the same direction the US went w.r.t. immigrants, just with a delay. Edit: Seems people are misinterpreting what I wrote. I'm referring to the public's view of immigration, not immigration or immigration policy itself.
  - nerdponx 9y ago
    What direction is that? Visa abuse by tech employers to bring in highly educated but cheap immigrants, xenophobia by the masses, and wage-enslavement of less-educated immigrants?
  - Mikeb85 9y ago
    Go the same direction? Our (Canada) immigration laws have always been much tougher, and illegal immigration is treated like the crime that it actually is... Not to mention there's very real penalties for hiring workers that aren't legally allowed to work, and the authorities regularly enforce them.
    - deadmetheny 9y ago
      Canada's laws on immigration are sensible. If anything, the USA should be following their lead on actually enforcing the law and bringing the hammer down on people hiring illegal workers.
  - sumitgt 9y ago
    One important thing that Canada gets right is the process to get PR. If you are well qualified, its dead simple to get a Green Card. As opposed to the US where if you are born from India, you have to wait 15-20 years for a Green Card due to country quotas.
jpm_sd 9y ago
Three years from now, Google will have gotten distracted by other shiny things, and the "smart" features of this neighborhood will abruptly stop working when their backend services are shut down.
dmix 9y ago
> “economic imbalance of those who own the robots and those who are displaced by them.” I know this is a serious risk in the future we should be well prepared for. I just hope the federal government doesn't try to step in to control it before we really understand what it's going to look like in practice and what the tangible costs are. But having such a young leader is refreshing, even if I don't align with him on most subjects. The negative side effects of every global leader being in the 65-80s yr old range can't be understated. At least in terms of dealing with the future. > he believes it’s not up to the Canadian government to “pick winners,” but that instead that it is their role to say that they’re going to “invest in quantum, we’re gonna invest in AI, we’re going to invest in robotics, we’re going to invest in high-value, innovative, creative, groundbreaking areas” I personally don't see how these two things will be disconnected. At least in terms of how the various levels of Canadian government has invested in 'innovation' in the past. Which has often resulted in selective financing often to established firms well past the innovation phase, engaging in businesses better suited for private organizations (VC, office real estate, etc), and other direct investments. That said Canada has been far better than the US in terms of supporting immigration of skilled workers and startup founders (my experience trying to immigrate to the US without a 4yr 'advanced' degree was nightmarish, despite 8yrs of experience, a solid job offer, and a US-based immigration lawyer). As well as a lower corporate tax than the US and fewer regulatory processes for wealthy angel investors. I really hope 'investing' is being translated to "making the lives easier" of the entrepreneurs, developers, and investors. Such as making investing private capital into Canada, from the US (and elsewhere) less risky than other countries. Supporting contractors, not just fulltime employees. Helping small companies navigate complex regulatory systems without crippling their ability to compete with larger firms with teams of lawyers. Generating smart regulatory frameworks based in technical understanding of the problem, and not sensational news coverage and "something must be done" reactionary motivation. Aka getting out of the way of companies doing the hard work and making the process smoother for them. Instead of pretending they can create pretend copies of successful Silicon Valley organization within a public structure by throwing money and buzzwords like 'innovation' at it.
Mikeb85 9y ago
Justin Trudeau talks a lot, so far very little of what he has said has turned into anything concrete. For most of his term he's been more of a cheerleader than a leader. Keep in mind parliament still has to make the laws, approve grants, etc..., and his political party is still run by bankers. They're more centrist than 'liberal' despite the name.
- thomasfoster96 9y ago
  > They're more centrist than 'liberal' despite the name. Most liberal parties around the world are more or less centrist. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
- bparsons 9y ago
  The feds are pouring tons of money into scientific research and commercialization. In 2016 it was this: http://u15.ca/what-we-are-saying/budget-2016-strong-commitment-scientific-research http://u15.ca/what-we-are-saying/budget-2016-strong-commitme... In 2018, it will be the supercluster initiative, which is a well thought out strategy for commercializing the talent coming out of Canadian universities.
  - robotresearcher 9y ago
    For those not actively tracking Canadian funding programs, the supercluster shortlisted proposals are: https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2017/10/innovation_superclustersinitiativeshortlistofapplicants.html https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-develop...
almonj 9y ago
It makes sense that he would shill for 'smart' cities because that implies expanding the 24/7 surveillance state.
frabbit 9y ago
This is the real meat of the story: City of Toronto is willing to give cheap land and subsidies as a lure in the hope that some tech money will dribble back into CAN economy. This is a much better article: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/metropolis/2017/10/sidewalk_labs_quayside_development_in_toronto_is_google_s_first_shot_at.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/metropolis/2017/10/...
- bparsons 9y ago
  It is a good deal for Toronto. The land has sat undeveloped and contaminated for decades. You need someone with extremely deep pockets to come along and develop that space, even if it does mean giving up something in return.
  - frabbit 9y ago
    Sure. But the idea that it's happening in Toronto because Canadians are somehow more into the idea of AI than other places is a bit silly. Hence, my argument that this is a more information rich article.
corpMaverick 9y ago
Is Justin trying to send a message to Jeff Bezos ? I do feel that Toronto is well positioned to be HQ2. immigration policies, general culture and the University of Waterloo being important points is favor.
- l4yao 9y ago
  The logistics for having a Canadian HQ is significant. The Canadian talent pool size can't compete with the US. Getting so many American employees visas would be a challenge. With NAFTA renegotiation, the TN visa's future seems uncertain.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
yters 9y ago
If ML can be fooled so easily, what happens when the entire city or all our transportation is run by ML? My hypothesis: bad things happen.
rdtsc 9y ago
> Canada also has notably different strategies when it comes to encouraging an atmosphere of innovation, and that includes specific policies around immigration. Then where is it's Silicon Valley? Why are Canadian software companies paying less than US ones. Why are new CS graduates moving to US? The immigration policy wasn't implemented yesterday. After all the decades of this immigration it should have had the same kind of growth as US. Now in reality immigration probably has less to do with it and it's just used for fluff and PR. There are other incentives and constraints that are not aligned quite right. Usually when a city or other government officials explicitly say "we're the next innovation center" or "here we will build the next Silicon Valley", chances are it won't happen. A few incentives or some token "city block transformation projects" are not enough. It might require a new tax or regulatory structure, but that's also hard to stomach politically and would make the administration less popular.
- dopamean 9y ago
  I'm no chemical engineer but I believe silicon and silicone are two different things.
  - rdtsc 9y ago
    Of course they are, thanks for the correction!
melonhack 9y ago
Full video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9X_-ARHXEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9X_-ARHXEI
gwatch 9y ago
Aside: From what I read in the past Trudeau is a leftist and he does not 'get' Islamic terrorism the same way Trump gets it (end the 'diversity' visa program used by yesterday's terrorist, and replace it with merit based one). As far AI and smart cities, we have to wait and see how much the government can change the game. Salaries are low in Canada, and US is nearby. I would imagine smart AI researchers will eventually leave Canada and immigrate to US. I think Trudeau will just be throwing taxpayer money at the Google's of the world, with little to show in return, and in the meantime, leftist media will be celebrating him as the next coming of Jesus.
smsm42 9y ago
I don't get what this means. "AI" is a vague moniker attributed to a wide area of tangentially related technologies. It's like saying "Canada really gets relational databases". Well, good for you, everybody kinda gets it, but what this has to do with "Canada"? Then: it’s not up to the Canadian government to “pick winners,” but that instead that it is their role to say that they’re going to “invest in quantum, we’re gonna invest in AI Isn't that literally the definition of "picking winners" - putting money in some specific handpicked areas? I mean, if you've got the argument for government investment in technology, fine, we can listen to it - but you can't in the same sentence deny it and praise it, it's insane! TLDR: politicians duckspeak about being pro everything good and contra everything bad, informational content: zero.

40 points by lordr 9y ago

>“I just think Canadians realize better than most that there is an opportunity here” We have no atmosphere of innovation because our salaries are garbage compared to the US. This is the problem, every single time. Most of my Canadian graduate friends work for US companies, some remotely. We literally do not have economic reasons to stay here. No amount of lip service will ever transform 100k into 300k. >“consequences of AI, the consequences of automation,” and the “economic imbalance of those who own the robots and those who are displaced by them.” Wasn't this shown to be a meme? That automation has already been happening very slowly, it's not going to be some sudden iRobot level change. Example: as a web dev now you only need one full stack guy to launch a production app, does the job of the designers, devops, frontend etc through various tooling that helped him automate processes that other developers would have done in the past. >Canadians have a tendency to travel, Trudeau said, and that results in a global outlook on how cities work and their different approaches to things like traffic and how people live in urban environments. More like I can make 3x for the same job here. I refer to my previous comment with respect to the waterfront, when will this tech bullshit be over? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15550745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15550745 This all reads like crap propaganda without saying anything, just some nice meaningless buzzwords. Actually it's even worse, looks like a paid for advertisement by Google and they have Trudeau in their pockets using him as an advertising puppet. Trudeau is a prime minister who was born into riches and surrounded by royal families since birth. This guy hasn't the faintest idea what he's talking about with anything related to real life much less tech or fucking AI. Nobody wants a 'smart city'. It'll just be another data mining project except now they will literally be optimizing your entire life for their profits. You can't meme a city into existence like all those cute little renders. Cities/villages have to rise up organically and then be tamed and incentivized to grow, not built with extreme robotic precision using data from the ground up. At best it's going to be some hip little place with crap corporate chain bars for working professionals just like it currently is cause that makes the most money, anything else is a pipe dream. Completely sterile and devoid of life, like all these projects turn out to be. >If the initiative proceeds, it would include at least 3.3 million square feet of residential, office and commercial space, including a new headquarters for Google Canada, in a district that would be a test bed for the combination of technology and urbanism. [0] [0] - https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/google-sidewalk-toronto-waterfront/article36612387/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com& https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/google-sidewal...

yannickt 9y ago
My thoughts exactly.
agmcleod 9y ago
> More like I can make 3x for the same job here. I know that silicon valley pays a fair bit, but cost to live there is also rather high. Is that true for most jobs across the US? I know developers in the US who are starting around similar salaries to myself, or lower in some cases. I agree with the rest of your points. Was hoping this to be more interesting than it was.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Cost of living is high in Vancouver and Toronto unfortunately. It doesn’t look better when salary is divided by COL, it looks worse. In the states, you’ll get a better deal pretty much wherever you live.
- rublev 9y ago
  I'm talking gross salary offers are in the 2.5-3.5 range for me. Not factoring in QOL.
frabbit 9y ago
Nobody wants a 'smart city'. It'll just be another data mining project except now they will literally be optimizing your entire life for their profits. Exactly. And this will stifle any chance of innovation and reduce the anonymity and privacy which is necessary for democracy to work.
CupOfJava 9y ago
> We have no atmosphere of innovation because our salaries are garbage compared to the US. This is the problem, every single time. Most of my Canadian graduate friends work for US companies, some remotely. We literally do not have economic reasons to stay here. No amount of lip service will ever transform 100k into 300k. You can make 3x there? Why are you still here then? Instead of making up numbers, here's a more balanced opinion on salary differences between Waterloo and Silicon Valley: https://medium.com/@srlake/debunking-the-myth-of-higher-pay-in-silicon-valley-87828cbf6698 https://medium.com/@srlake/debunking-the-myth-of-higher-pay-...

yannickt 9y ago

Are there that many Canadian companies (as opposed to US companies with satellite offices in Canada) capitalizing on AI? If not, does Canada really "get it?"

rublev 9y ago
Absolutely not. Nevermind even starting to talk about a specific niche of tech like AI. Article is completely false on almost all counts.
doctorRetro 9y ago
Canadian here: I couldn't name one. I'm not a Trudeau hater (or fanboy, for that matter), but this is definitely all hollow lip service. Edit: I'm also not really sure what he means by "get it".
jdross 9y ago
Geoff Hinton is from University of Toronto. Waterloo is great source of talent as well
- malandrew 9y ago
  U-Waterloo is its own special thing. It's hardly reflective of the rest of Canada. More universities need to take the U-Waterloo approach of work experience interspersed with academic study.
  - UseStrict 9y ago
    They do? A large number of Canadian universities offer co-op, either optional or integrated into their programs.
- busterarm 9y ago
  But the provinces Canada most needs to develop right now are probably far less desirable to most UT & Waterloo grads than a move to the US.
- deleted 9y ago

nilved 9y ago

Anyone who agrees with this hasn't lived in Canada.

aaron-lebo 9y ago

Don't see much insight here. Canadians love immigrants (apparently more than the US, but do numbers really play that out)? Canadians love to travel, too, apparently. It's a lot of vague rah-rah PR between Trudeau (who is the master of that) and a major CEO.

throwaway613834 9y ago
I'm worried Canada is just going to go the same direction the US went w.r.t. immigrants, just with a delay. Edit: Seems people are misinterpreting what I wrote. I'm referring to the public's view of immigration, not immigration or immigration policy itself.
- nerdponx 9y ago
  What direction is that? Visa abuse by tech employers to bring in highly educated but cheap immigrants, xenophobia by the masses, and wage-enslavement of less-educated immigrants?
- Mikeb85 9y ago
  Go the same direction? Our (Canada) immigration laws have always been much tougher, and illegal immigration is treated like the crime that it actually is... Not to mention there's very real penalties for hiring workers that aren't legally allowed to work, and the authorities regularly enforce them.
  - deadmetheny 9y ago
    Canada's laws on immigration are sensible. If anything, the USA should be following their lead on actually enforcing the law and bringing the hammer down on people hiring illegal workers.
- sumitgt 9y ago
  One important thing that Canada gets right is the process to get PR. If you are well qualified, its dead simple to get a Green Card. As opposed to the US where if you are born from India, you have to wait 15-20 years for a Green Card due to country quotas.

jpm_sd 9y ago

Three years from now, Google will have gotten distracted by other shiny things, and the "smart" features of this neighborhood will abruptly stop working when their backend services are shut down.

dmix 9y ago

> “economic imbalance of those who own the robots and those who are displaced by them.” I know this is a serious risk in the future we should be well prepared for. I just hope the federal government doesn't try to step in to control it before we really understand what it's going to look like in practice and what the tangible costs are. But having such a young leader is refreshing, even if I don't align with him on most subjects. The negative side effects of every global leader being in the 65-80s yr old range can't be understated. At least in terms of dealing with the future. > he believes it’s not up to the Canadian government to “pick winners,” but that instead that it is their role to say that they’re going to “invest in quantum, we’re gonna invest in AI, we’re going to invest in robotics, we’re going to invest in high-value, innovative, creative, groundbreaking areas” I personally don't see how these two things will be disconnected. At least in terms of how the various levels of Canadian government has invested in 'innovation' in the past. Which has often resulted in selective financing often to established firms well past the innovation phase, engaging in businesses better suited for private organizations (VC, office real estate, etc), and other direct investments. That said Canada has been far better than the US in terms of supporting immigration of skilled workers and startup founders (my experience trying to immigrate to the US without a 4yr 'advanced' degree was nightmarish, despite 8yrs of experience, a solid job offer, and a US-based immigration lawyer). As well as a lower corporate tax than the US and fewer regulatory processes for wealthy angel investors. I really hope 'investing' is being translated to "making the lives easier" of the entrepreneurs, developers, and investors. Such as making investing private capital into Canada, from the US (and elsewhere) less risky than other countries. Supporting contractors, not just fulltime employees. Helping small companies navigate complex regulatory systems without crippling their ability to compete with larger firms with teams of lawyers. Generating smart regulatory frameworks based in technical understanding of the problem, and not sensational news coverage and "something must be done" reactionary motivation. Aka getting out of the way of companies doing the hard work and making the process smoother for them. Instead of pretending they can create pretend copies of successful Silicon Valley organization within a public structure by throwing money and buzzwords like 'innovation' at it.

Mikeb85 9y ago

Justin Trudeau talks a lot, so far very little of what he has said has turned into anything concrete. For most of his term he's been more of a cheerleader than a leader. Keep in mind parliament still has to make the laws, approve grants, etc..., and his political party is still run by bankers. They're more centrist than 'liberal' despite the name.

thomasfoster96 9y ago
> They're more centrist than 'liberal' despite the name. Most liberal parties around the world are more or less centrist. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
bparsons 9y ago
The feds are pouring tons of money into scientific research and commercialization. In 2016 it was this: http://u15.ca/what-we-are-saying/budget-2016-strong-commitment-scientific-research http://u15.ca/what-we-are-saying/budget-2016-strong-commitme... In 2018, it will be the supercluster initiative, which is a well thought out strategy for commercializing the talent coming out of Canadian universities.
- robotresearcher 9y ago
  For those not actively tracking Canadian funding programs, the supercluster shortlisted proposals are: https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2017/10/innovation_superclustersinitiativeshortlistofapplicants.html https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-develop...

almonj 9y ago

It makes sense that he would shill for 'smart' cities because that implies expanding the 24/7 surveillance state.

frabbit 9y ago

This is the real meat of the story: City of Toronto is willing to give cheap land and subsidies as a lure in the hope that some tech money will dribble back into CAN economy. This is a much better article: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/metropolis/2017/10/sidewalk_labs_quayside_development_in_toronto_is_google_s_first_shot_at.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/metropolis/2017/10/...

bparsons 9y ago
It is a good deal for Toronto. The land has sat undeveloped and contaminated for decades. You need someone with extremely deep pockets to come along and develop that space, even if it does mean giving up something in return.
- frabbit 9y ago
  Sure. But the idea that it's happening in Toronto because Canadians are somehow more into the idea of AI than other places is a bit silly. Hence, my argument that this is a more information rich article.

corpMaverick 9y ago

Is Justin trying to send a message to Jeff Bezos ? I do feel that Toronto is well positioned to be HQ2. immigration policies, general culture and the University of Waterloo being important points is favor.

l4yao 9y ago
The logistics for having a Canadian HQ is significant. The Canadian talent pool size can't compete with the US. Getting so many American employees visas would be a challenge. With NAFTA renegotiation, the TN visa's future seems uncertain.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

yters 9y ago

If ML can be fooled so easily, what happens when the entire city or all our transportation is run by ML? My hypothesis: bad things happen.

rdtsc 9y ago

> Canada also has notably different strategies when it comes to encouraging an atmosphere of innovation, and that includes specific policies around immigration. Then where is it's Silicon Valley? Why are Canadian software companies paying less than US ones. Why are new CS graduates moving to US? The immigration policy wasn't implemented yesterday. After all the decades of this immigration it should have had the same kind of growth as US. Now in reality immigration probably has less to do with it and it's just used for fluff and PR. There are other incentives and constraints that are not aligned quite right. Usually when a city or other government officials explicitly say "we're the next innovation center" or "here we will build the next Silicon Valley", chances are it won't happen. A few incentives or some token "city block transformation projects" are not enough. It might require a new tax or regulatory structure, but that's also hard to stomach politically and would make the administration less popular.

dopamean 9y ago
I'm no chemical engineer but I believe silicon and silicone are two different things.
- rdtsc 9y ago
  Of course they are, thanks for the correction!

melonhack 9y ago

Full video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9X_-ARHXEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9X_-ARHXEI

gwatch 9y ago

Aside: From what I read in the past Trudeau is a leftist and he does not 'get' Islamic terrorism the same way Trump gets it (end the 'diversity' visa program used by yesterday's terrorist, and replace it with merit based one). As far AI and smart cities, we have to wait and see how much the government can change the game. Salaries are low in Canada, and US is nearby. I would imagine smart AI researchers will eventually leave Canada and immigrate to US. I think Trudeau will just be throwing taxpayer money at the Google's of the world, with little to show in return, and in the meantime, leftist media will be celebrating him as the next coming of Jesus.

smsm42 9y ago

I don't get what this means. "AI" is a vague moniker attributed to a wide area of tangentially related technologies. It's like saying "Canada really gets relational databases". Well, good for you, everybody kinda gets it, but what this has to do with "Canada"? Then: it’s not up to the Canadian government to “pick winners,” but that instead that it is their role to say that they’re going to “invest in quantum, we’re gonna invest in AI Isn't that literally the definition of "picking winners" - putting money in some specific handpicked areas? I mean, if you've got the argument for government investment in technology, fine, we can listen to it - but you can't in the same sentence deny it and praise it, it's insane! TLDR: politicians duckspeak about being pro everything good and contra everything bad, informational content: zero.