Author: Mark Henderson

Element AI goes global with $137.5-million series ‘A’ investment

Published on

Montreal-based Element AI has raised $137.5 million in series ‘A’ financing to support investment in large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) projects internationally, cement its status as Canada’s the largest global AI company and hire 250 people by January 2018. The investment is the world’s largest Series A round ever for an AI company. The financing is…

Read More

Vector Institute aims to play key role in Canada’s bid to maintain AI leadership

Published on

Geoff Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and Richard Sutton may not be household names but in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) these Canadian researchers are superstars at the forefront of a field that is attracting a host of marquee tech titans angling to gain competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving field. Yet many highly accomplished AI researchers have left Canada to seek opportunity elsewhere prompting a remarkable alignment of government, academia and industry to make Canada the go-to destination for AI advancements in an ever-expanding range of industry sectors.

Read More

Federal spending on S&T declines in FY17-18 with share of intramural spending hitting 34-year low

Published on

The share of federal spending on S&T conducted in-house by government departments and agencies declined to its lowest level in 35 years as federal spending intentions for 2017-18 are projected to decline 1.2% to $11.3 billion, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. The drop to 44% of the total is largely attributable to a sharp (6.7%) decline in related scientific activities (RSA) spurred by the absence of StatsCan Census Program survey which was last conducted in 2016 and occurs every five years.

Read More