Francis MacDougall

Collision Conf is one of the biggest tech+AI events in North America and I am looking forward to learning more in this exploding space. If anyone is heading that way, feel free to ping and we can connect! #AI #generativeAI #digitaltransformation

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Any talk about the growth of the AI chip business is usually driven by stories about how dominant Nvidia's market share is, or how companies like AMD and Intel are trying their best to catch up. So it might be easy to assume that there isn't a chance for startups to compete. But several Canadian startups are finding a place in the chip market, which has room for them to co-exist with and compliment what's being sold by the big multinationals (and, possibly, disrupt them). https://lnkd.in/gm_gs9m9

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🎉 Incredibly honored and what a blast it was to have this rich, deep, wide ranging, and super practical conversation on delivering value with #GenAI in medicine with the eminent Robert Pearl, M.D. and our esteemed podcast cohosts, Stephanie Feals & Apurv Gupta, MD, MPH. They are also leaders and members of our Trustworthy Technology and Innovation in Healthcare Book Series Consortium (TTIC) led by the Medigram, Inc. team --for this insiders' insider industry giants of clinical excellence show, Making Healthcare Work for You. 💡 Like all conversations for #healthcareAI should have, we had a cross functional dyad of medicine well represented by technology and a voice advocating for trust, security, and privacy in the mix. Representing the future, a patient advocate was a key partner in the discussion. Thank you to Robert Pearl, M.D. for using the incredible power of your voice to advocate for trustworthy, secure, and ethical GenAI. 🎯 If you want to know more about how to tie GenAI to the business of medicine, take a listen. 🚀 Spoiler alert: it's with trust, security, and ethics aligned with business models of care.

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Some interesting thoughts in the inexorable march forward of each AI generation, but also the limits to where AI really shines. In terms of repurposing exisitng content, there seem to be some real value adds here - but exactly how useful this 'professional' podcast really is remains to be seen.

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What can you do in under an hour with AI? A music video? 🎃 I had so much fun putting this together. AI Teck Stack: - LaunchLemonade (custom assistant image generator with Flux, concept, names) - Udio (music) - Runway (animation) (Oh and I also used Canva and Capcut for cover and stitching it all together) #launchlemonade #ai

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South Africa has made significant strides in the transition to renewable energy over the last two years and has ambitious plans for the next two years. Between 2021 and 2023, the country increased its total renewable energy capacity to over 10,623 megawatts. This was a modest increase from the previous year but indicative of steady growth in the sector​. Looking ahead, South Africa aims to dramatically increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity mix. By 2030, it is projected that renewables could supply nearly 49% of the country's electricity needs, a considerable rise from current levels. This goal is supported by both governmental policy shifts and increasing private sector involvement in renewable energy projects​. Thanks to the AI revolution the amount of electricity we need is limitless.

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"Why we want to build Conscious AI" -- check our our first Nirvanic Substack post. #ConsciousAI #SafeAI #VancouverAI #YouAreConscious https://lnkd.in/g-AF9kaH

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Call for demos: AI Tinkerers Toronto is looking for demos for the upcoming Spooky Botober - Haunted AI Meetup at Mozilla, on Oct. 30th. RSVP and get your demo proposal in, friends! https://lnkd.in/gW5-Bkin What is AI Tinkerers? Glad you asked. This is a monthly haunt for AI / ML wizards, and on the month of Botober, the meetup is taking on a darker twist as we delve (step by step!) into the powers of Haunted AI. We're not that interested in spooky AI models which have feasted on huge chunks of the internet, but rather those that have sipped delicately on hand-curated artisanal datasets. Join us to connect with fellow creators and share your haunted AI projects!

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For the last 11 years, I've had the privilege of teaching product development, design, and entrepreneurship to talented computer science students at the University of Toronto. While having access to the latest educational resources is crucial, what I’ve found truly transformative are the skills of critical thinking, creativity, and vision. These are the tools that drive innovation and change. I couldn’t agree more that staying up to date is important, but applying that knowledge in a unique, forward-thinking way truly revolutionizes the future of work and industry. What further skills should people develop/learn to complement their AI education? #AIeducation #futureofwork #careerdevelopment #backtoschool https://lnkd.in/g6TQEwqF

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Exodus + Outer Banks 🤔 One of my favourite things about AI is its ability to make connections between seemingly random things with nothing in common. Recently, I worked with a teacher who teaches an Old Testament class at a Catholic high school in California. We decided to try using NotebookLM to make her lesson plan on the Book of Exodus more engaging. We provided LM with the Old Testament text and a YouTube link to a trailer for the new season of Outer Banks, a Netflix teen drama show. The result was a podcast that was an engaging, relevant and highly entertaining combination of all the intersections of these storylines and lessons that teens could instantly relate to. Who knew there were so many parallels? Another great way to use AI to make connections is the Framework Finder GPT in ChatGPT by Ethan Mollick. This tool will take any of your content and find an applicable mainstream framework to help you think about or explain it better (think literary frameworks, business frameworks, comparative frameworks, social frameworks…anything!). It would take you or me thousands of hours to make these connections, but AI can do it in seconds giving us more time to think about what those connections MEAN. 💡Challenge: think of two random things and use AI to help you connect those dots in a way that makes sense or help you see something new. Be creative! #AI #PracticalAI

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The #CTO Group, organized by Bijan Vaez, enables technology leaders in the Greater Vancouver Area to connect, collaborate, and share insights. As a not-for-profit and curated community, it fosters meaningful interactions and supports the growth of the local (and Canadian) technology ecosystem. The upcoming session on Nov. 20th will address an important topic on the intersection of AI and engineering productivity - and will offer engineering leaders a chance to explore balancing AI tools with human insights to future-proof teams and achieve meaningful results. #technologyleaders #techleadership #canadiantech #vancouvertech

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🚨 One-third of AI projects just for show #Relief! And Kudos! Calgary Public Library 📈 How To Make Decisions Like A Billionaire My weekly Tech news round-up of news you can use: 🚨 One-third of AI projects just for show 💡 The main purpose of AI initiatives is to show investors and stakeholders their organization is doing something with AI. However, “You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.” AI is happening, and businesses need to embrace it. Here’s how: 👇 https://lnkd.in/ghrkEUz9 #Relief! And Kudos! No personal data leaked in Calgary Public Library cybersecurity attack 🎉 👏 Kudos to Calgary Public Library's cybersecurity team and incident response protocols that blocked a recent cyber attack. Ransomware attacks are on the rise—stay vigilant, folks! 🔐 https://lnkd.in/gpHGap8C 📈 How To Make Decisions Like A Billionaire These well-known billionaires prove that a boring, principle-driven approach can lead to massive success. 💼 Ray Dalio has detailed playbooks guiding every decision, from investing to hiring. 📊 Bill Gates says measure everything: "If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” ⏰ Warren Buffett lives by a strict routine. Choose method over madness. https://lnkd.in/gczGwq_s

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New from me, but first a confession: I am not much of a numbers guy. This is something I came to understand in grade nine in Mr. Guy-With-A-Bushy-Moustache's class at North Toronto (Go Norsemen). Prior to grade nine, boy oh boy, I was a whiz, and then by grade 11 every elective I took was in either history or english. Some people who struggle with math survive to tell the tale. And some math survivors, like Sanja Fidler, become brilliant university professors who get picked-off by global tech giants to head up their artificial intelligence research lab in Toronto, where math resides at the bedrock of every breakthrough. If you aren't one to follow the stock markets, but are one to dabble with ChatGPT, you will have had hands-on experience with Nvidia's sector (global?) defining artificial intelligence hardware and software. Yup. The revolution is upon us, and Fidler, right here in Toronto, is helping to push boundaries as a leading AI industry pioneer and Nvidia senior exec. (That would be a company with shares that trade for $800 a pop, FYI). But back to math. Fidler, it turns out, hated math as a little girl, but she kept at it, and what had been a torment grew into something she came to love and is now using it to change the world as we know it. Neat, eh? Thanks, as always, for reading, Jo'c PS. If you live anywhere near High Park, and rise early, you gotta check out the cherry blossoms first thing one morning this weekend, there is beauty there in full bloom.

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Does the idea of falling in love with an AI sound crazy? The reality shown through this article is that AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for many people who struggle quietly with social anxiety, loneliness, depression, neurodivergence and more. These challenges are becoming more common and people who suffer often have no where to turn and nobody to turn to. Enter AI companions and a whole new world of machine and human interaction. I encourage you to read this fascinating and courageous article about the power and complexity of AI as a personal companion before you judge the idea of AI for companionship and love. The reality is that companionship may end up becoming one of AI's primary uses, and there is data out there showing this may already be the reality, with Character AI being the second most visited AI website and the AI tool that people spend the most time interacting with. Rather than judging the idea of falling in love with an AI and/or AI for companionship, I think we ought to ask ouselves about the world we live in that is causing so many people to stuggle with challenges such as social anxiety, depression and everything else that so many humans stuggle with. When it comes to AI companionship and love, I think its important not to hate the players .. or characters, but instead to hate the game or society we live in that makes people feel alone and depressed. While I don't use AI for companionship, I do use it as a personal thinking assistant, second set of eyes, devils advocate and work colleage and it's incredibly useful to me in these ways. Huge props to Carl Clarke for writing this informative article and bringing this powerful story to the forefront. What do you think? Does the idea of falling in love with an AI sound crazy? Can AI be an effective companion? Do you use AI as a trusted colleague at work? It's a brave new world out there and I think we should all have an open mind!

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AI Meets TED. Looking forward to hosting this Braindate(tm) with fellow TEDsters in Vancouver. AI: Incredible Potential or Horrifying Peril? Let’s take sides. Let’s debate and discuss 😎 #AIDecade #TED2024

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Good news 🇨🇦 Tech friends: AI Tinkerers Toronto Meetup is now live! Show don't tell. Join us to share your killer AI demo with fellow AI builders and researchers, on May 30th at Shopify HQ. No pitches! We want to see your messy WIP! Let's build 🇨🇦 / acc. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/g-C73dwm 💡 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗧𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗿𝘀? We are not just “AI enthusiasts”, we are AI tinkerers. AI Tinkerers is a meetup built around live demos, for tech entrepreneurs, hackers and those deeply passionate about creating LLM-enabled applications and have hands-on experience in building such systems. For those who remember... yes this is a lot like DemoCamp :) 🎤 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘀 We are actively looking for presenters! A presentation/demo is limited to 5-6 minutes in length and demonstrates a work in progress. We’ll select 4 or 5 of the most interesting topics to present. Note, as capacity to the event is limited, we’ll be prioritizing those that can demo something interesting. 🚀 Pls RSVP and spread the word! We've needed an event built around actual Demos. This is it. Sponsored by Shopify and Shopify Ventures; brought to you by the Human Feedback Foundation AIT city organizers. Let's go 🚀

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Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez says that #1 blocker for Enterprise GenAI use cases is data privacy and #2 blocker is the cost (implies ROI). He also explained what Canadian AI startup, Cohere does and how they make money. A must watch for anyone who is interested in Enterprise GenAI use cases. He also said that GenAI fear mongering is cheap ways to get attention (I am paraphrasing, he didn’t use the word cheap). Quite a bit commentary on Google Cloud AI developments as well. Other mentions Oracle and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aidan comes across as a mature tech leader for his young age. He sounds more realistic and less me too, in GenAI hyped era. Aidan was talking to CNBC’s Steve Kovach. https://lnkd.in/g36SFYfn ____________________ Last month, Cohere has raised $450 million in funding from returning investors such as Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures, as well as new investors including Cisco and Canadian pension fund PSP Investments cc David Vellante David Linthicum John Furrier Ron Miller Shelly DeMotte Kramer Robert Hof

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The #quantum #computing industry is both fascinating and complex, but more importantly, it is a critical and rapidly growing industry that is really set to be the source and driver of innovation across for a number of technologies (both existing and those that have yet to be created). If, like me, you've also gone down fascinating rabbit holes on better understanding quantum computing, I think you'll really enjoy the below event, put on by CDL-Rockies, Voyager Capital, Quantum City and Platform Calgary and sponsored by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. It will be a really fresh take on how quantum computing technologies are being used, what building a business in this space looks like and where the industry is heading. Check it out and I'll see you there! Heather Marshall, MBA Alice Reimer Austin Guyette Megan Lee Jennifer Lussier Taylor C. Karam-Ali Talakshi Essmaa Kachour #EHGYYC #founders #venturecapital #startups #scaleups #growthcompanies #investors #quantum #quantumcity #CDL #voyagercapital

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