Amazon looking for a location to have a 2nd HQ

[Mâtréal]

I don’t know if this website is any good, but I like the article. They put Montreal 2nd:

https://becominghuman.ai/238-cities-have-vied-to-become-amazons-second-headquarters-b31c2944076

#2 MONTREAL — THE TALENT MAGNET

When it comes to AI talent, Montreal has the crème de la crème.

Montreal is home to legendary AI Godfather: Yoshua Bengio, University of Montreal professor and head of Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms(MILA). Along with University of Montreal and McGill, MILA does academic research powered by 150+ cutting-edge AI researchers, the largest concentration of its kind on the planet.

Montreal already has an budding ecosystem. The Institute for Data Valorisation uses its nearly $230M in funding to do applied research, while Element.AI (with $103M in funding) incubates start-ups. Many big companies are setting up AI labs here, including Google, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook.

With aggressive support from the Canadian government and AI Gurus galore, Giants will begin emerging from Montreal.

 

Modifié 1 novembre 2017 par Mâtréal

[jerry]

1 hour ago, Mâtréal said:

I don’t know if this website is any good, but I like the article. They put Montreal 2nd:

https://becominghuman.ai/238-cities-have-vied-to-become-amazons-second-headquarters-b31c2944076

#2 MONTREAL — THE TALENT MAGNET

When it comes to AI talent, Montreal has the crème de la crème.

Montreal is home to legendary AI Godfather: Yoshua Bengio, University of Montreal professor and head of Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms(MILA). Along with University of Montreal and McGill, MILA does academic research powered by 150+ cutting-edge AI researchers, the largest concentration of its kind on the planet.

Montreal already has an budding ecosystem. The Institute for Data Valorisation uses its nearly $230M in funding to do applied research, while Element.AI (with $103M in funding) incubates start-ups. Many big companies are setting up AI labs here, including Google, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook.

With aggressive support from the Canadian government and AI Gurus galore, Giants will begin emerging from Montreal.

 

A little precision : They're not actually putting Montreal 2nd favourite to get Amazon HQ2, but among cities becoming global AI hubs, which is even more impressive. Number one is SF, 3 is Seattle and 4 is Toronto.

Forget About Amazon HQ2, Where will AI be Headquartered?

238 cities are vying to become Amazon’s second headquarters. An estimated 1 million words (War & Peace twice over!) have been written speculating the much-anticipated outcome. With all the hype, we’re ignoring a more important question:

Where will artificial intelligence be headquartered?

Won’t these new AI headquarters spawn the next 10 Amazons?

To find these cities, don’t just follow the city infrastructure, tax breaks, big companies, or nice weather. Follow the talent. Go where the ~50,000 AI engineers/scientists are today and where they are going tomorrow — especially the ~10,000 specialized researchers. Recruiting a top AI researcher is like recruiting an NFL quarterback: 8-figure, multi-year contracts, the whole nine yards.

#4 TORONTO — THE WILD CARD

 

Toronto has Geoffrey Hinton, the Godfather of deep learning. He leads Google Brain’s Team in Toronto and is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Vector Institute, an unusual $150M public-private institute that will do basic and applied AI research.

Vector will employ hundreds of AI scientists. A new start-up ecosystem will inevitably emerge.

GM, Thomson Reuters, and Uber have decided to build AI labs in Toronto. Toronto also has two intriguing wild cards:

1. 40 quantum machine learning entrepreneurs (yes, that’s apparently a thing) are in a visionary accelerator program and have access to the only commercially-available quantum computers. As data-crunching power is crucial for deep learning, quantum computing could be 100 million times faster than today’s fastest computers.
2. Google’s Sidewalk Labs may build a multi-billion dollar “smart city” within Toronto. The land area at play is similar to NYC’s Central Park.

#3 SEATTLE — THE DYNAMIC DUO

 

Seattle is boosted by twin giants, Amazon and Microsoft. In the last year, Microsoft’s AI & Research division grew from 5,000 to 8,000 engineers. At Amazon, 5,000 engineers are working on Alexa. LinkedIn showed 300+ “deep learning” jobs, many from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Facebook.

TenCent, the biggest company Americans have never heard of, is opening a lab in Seattle. However, Seattle’s AI scene seems to be corporate, not start-up. I found less than 10 funded with $10M+.

#2 MONTREAL — THE TALENT MAGNET

 

When it comes to AI talent, Montreal has the crème de la crème.

Montreal is home to legendary AI Godfather: Yoshua Bengio, University of Montreal professor and head of Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms(MILA). Along with University of Montreal and McGill, MILA does academic research powered by 150+ cutting-edge AI researchers, the largest concentration of its kind on the planet.

Montreal already has an budding ecosystem. The Institute for Data Valorisation uses its nearly $230M in funding to do applied research, while Element.AI (with $103M in funding) incubates start-ups. Many big companies are setting up AI labs here, including Google, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, and Facebook.

With aggressive support from the Canadian government and AI Gurus galore, Giants will begin emerging from Montreal.

#1 SAN FRANCISCO — THE EASY WINNER

 

3 of the 6 largest companies in the world (by market cap) are based in San Francisco — Google, Facebook, and Apple. I’ve already mentioned Google above. Facebook and Apple are pouring billions into AI, but ironically, they have polar opposite approaches. Facebook is famously open, while Apple is trying to shed its secretive approach. Elon Musk launched OpenAI, a non-profit dedicated to utilizing AI to benefit humanity (with a staggering $1B).

Dozens of huge companies are growing their AI capabilities. Baidu (China’s Google) has not one, but two AI labs here.

And, how can you compete with 90+ AI start-ups ($10M+ in funding) and 1,300+ deep learning open jobs? I was rooting for an upset, but San Francisco is the winner. Nowhere else is close.

Modifié 2 novembre 2017 par jerry

[Mâtréal]

True for the precision. However, I meant, every good word for Montreal increases our chances, in the long run...

 I’m a dreamer. 

Modifié 2 novembre 2017 par Mâtréal

[Habsfan]

I must admit that we have a unique opportunity to forever to change the fate of our city. I believe we should invest everything we can into AI. Make sure our Universities are well equipped and offer tax breaks or easy loans for companies who choose to come to Montreal (or who are already here and specialize in AI).

[LindbergMTL]

Que Montréal soit entre SF et Seattle est extraordinaire.  En passant, si vous voulez en apprendre plus sur les developpements et les risques associés a IA, je vous suggère de lire Superintelligence de Nick Bostrom et le "mind blowing" ahurissant Life 3.0 de Max Tegmark.  AI est un tsunami qui s'en vient en plein sur nous.   Comme je l'ai mentionné déja, Montréal sera méconnaissable dans 10 ans.s

[Rocco]

il y a 18 minutes, LindbergMTL a dit :

Que Montréal soit entre SF et Seattle est extraordinaire.  En passant, si vous voulez en apprendre plus sur les developpements et les risques associés a IA, je vous suggère de lire Superintelligence de Nick Bostrom et le "mind blowing" ahurissant Life 3.0 de Max Tegmark.  AI est un tsunami qui s'en vient en plein sur nous.   Comme je l'ai mentionné déja, Montréal sera méconnaissable dans 10 ans.s

Il y aura quand même des tours en pre-fab gris-beige..

[MtlMan]

Il y a 12 heures, LindbergMTL a dit :

Que Montréal soit entre SF et Seattle est extraordinaire.  En passant, si vous voulez en apprendre plus sur les developpements et les risques associés a IA, je vous suggère de lire Superintelligence de Nick Bostrom et le "mind blowing" ahurissant Life 3.0 de Max Tegmark.  AI est un tsunami qui s'en vient en plein sur nous.   Comme je l'ai mentionné déja, Montréal sera méconnaissable dans 10 ans.s

Merci des suggestions. Très apprécié.

[man with the golden gun]

Il y a 14 heures, Rocco a dit :

Il y aura quand même des tours en pre-fab gris-beige..

Et malheureusement Griffixtown sera toujours bien présent au centre-ville.

[bob]

c'est à la fois épatant et un peu effrayent de penser que ce bon classement de notre ville repose en très grande partie sur une personne: Yoshua Bengio. Je n'ai pas le plaisir de le connaître alors je ne peux que me fier à ce que je lis dans la presse, mais je ne doute pas de sa compétence: ce profil proéminent dans le domaine est tout à son honneur. C'est aussi sûrement lié au fait que le domaine est encore jeune, avec peu de grands noms très établis. Ceci dit, en termes stratégiques, la job #1 est de diversifier au maximum l'écosystème AI local afin de le rendre plus résilient à la disparition ou au départ d'un joueur clé individuel.

[MtlMan]

Il y a 13 heures, bob a dit :

c'est à la fois épatant et un peu effrayent de penser que ce bon classement de notre ville repose en très grande partie sur une personne: Yoshua Bengio. Je n'ai pas le plaisir de le connaître alors je ne peux que me fier à ce que je lis dans la presse, mais je ne doute pas de sa compétence: ce profil proéminent dans le domaine est tout à son honneur. C'est aussi sûrement lié au fait que le domaine est encore jeune, avec peu de grands noms très établis. Ceci dit, en termes stratégiques, la job #1 est de diversifier au maximum l'écosystème AI local afin de le rendre plus résilient à la disparition ou au départ d'un joueur clé individuel.

Il n'est pas seul, loin de là. Plein d'autres sont talentueux et plusieurs en formation actuellement. Mais il reçoit le plus de visibilité, oui.