Tingxi Tan

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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“Who in the audience already thinks that AI is conscious?” I asked a Vancouver AI crowd last night. Check out the first 3 minutes of my presentation below. Full video on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ge-dc3wa Thrilled to be able to have conversations about consciousness in AI. Thanks to Kris Krüg for the opportunity! #ConsciousAI #YouAreConscious #VancouverAI

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Recently I interviewed Nathaniel Simard, founder & CEO of Tracel Technologies and inventor of the burn ML framework: Jan: Nathaniel, we're excited to have you as our guest today! To kick off our conversation, could you please introduce yourself and share a bit about your background and what got you into ML? Nathaniel: Sure, I'm the creator of Burn, a deep learning framework written in Rust, and the founder of Tracel AI. I started coding in the first year of university, where I was studying mechanical engineering, but I quickly switched to software engineering after, since I instantly fell in love with programming. Then I explored different facets of the field from backend to frontend development, and I decided to start my career as a consultant focused on software quality. After some time, I wanted to go deeper into AI, since I was always interested in the process of learning, so I enrolled for a master's degree at MILA. J: According to Github you started to work on burn in summer 2022. Since then has already earned over 7000 stars on GH. What was your initial motivation to develop a new ML framework? N: I always had a side project going on, for fun mostly and to learn new things. I wanted to explore asynchronous and sparse neural network architectures, where each sub-network can learn and interact with other sub-networks asynchronously and independently. I wasn't able to actually create something useful because I needed fine control over the gradients and the concurrency primitives, which is not easily done with Python and PyTorch. At the same time, I was working on machine translation models at my current job, and it was quite painful to put models into production. I decided to switch my side project to a new deep learning framework, with more flexibility regarding gradients and concurrency primitives as well as being more reliable and easier to deploy on any system. J: Amazing to see that this was born out of a side project! I feel the struggle with concurrency in Python and this is something where Rust really shines. What are some of the other key features that makes burn special? N: I think there are two things that really set Burn apart. First, almost all neural network structures are generic over the backend. The goal is that you can ship your model with almost no dependency, and anybody can run it on their hardware with the most appropriate backend, even embedded devices without an operating system. Second, Burn really tries to push the boundaries of what is possible in terms of performance and flexibility. It offers a fully eager API, but also operation fusion and other optimizations that are normally only found in static graph frameworks. The objective is that you don't have to choose between portability, flexibility, and performance; you can have it all! To read the rest of the interview with Nathaniel's plans for burn & trends in AI here: https://lnkd.in/dKv9ztMm #ml #ai

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Vancouver just made a move that could rewrite its economic playbook - and crypto enthusiasts are watching closely. The city council's motion to become "Bitcoin-friendly" isn't just symbolic. It's a strategic play that positions Vancouver as a potential tech and financial innovation hub. This isn't about blind crypto worship; it's about understanding that digital currencies represent more than just speculative assets. Imagine municipal services that could accept Bitcoin. Streamlined international transactions. Attracting tech talent and blockchain companies. These aren't pipe dreams - they're potential economic strategies for a city looking to differentiate itself. Canada has always been surprisingly progressive with crypto. From blockchain startups in Toronto to forward-thinking regulatory approaches, this Vancouver move feels like another piece of a larger national puzzle. The real question: Are we witnessing the early stages of how cities might reimagine their economic development in a digital-first world? Cities compete on talent, infrastructure, and innovation. Bitcoin-friendly policies could be the new economic development playbook. Your thoughts? Is this visionary or premature? 👇 #Bitcoin #CityInnovation #BlockchainAdoption

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Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

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Too often, we get caught up in pursuing perfect outcomes, forgetting that innovation is a journey of trial and error. Check out my full Dialog interview with Mourad Zerroug, CTO at Splash (SplashThat.com): https://lnkd.in/eMgEyBt9

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Chartwatch: AI Transforming Patient Care Imagine catching a life-threatening infection hours before it's visible. That’s what Chartwatch, an AI-based early warning system, did at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. A seemingly fine patient was flagged for high white blood cell count due to a cat bite. The rapid alert led to fast antibiotic treatment, saving him from severe complications. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal revealed Chartwatch led to a 26% drop in unexpected deaths. Developed by Unity Health's AI team in 2017, this tool analyzes 100 elements in a medical record every hour, predicting patient deterioration earlier than human staff alone could. This technology isn’t replacing healthcare workers but enhancing their capabilities. Dr. Muhammad Mamdani from Unity Health emphasized, "We're glad to see that we're saving lives." The study showed significant improvements in patient care, despite varying challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the research at one specialized unit prompts calls for broader testing. The AI has potential beyond just one hospital, with collaborative efforts to roll it out across Ontario. Dr. John-Jose Nunez praised Chartwatch as a real-world AI application that complements clinical teams. Could Chartwatch be the future of proactive healthcare? The Unity Health team hopes so, aiming for broader deployment to transform patient outcomes. #HealthTech #AIInHealthcare #PatientSafety

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sunday musing: toronto needs a deeper energy of building and experimentation in 2025 🏗️ we ought to think a little more “Bay Area” and a little less “Bay Street”. let’s get weird. there are only a few pockets of the city where ambitious thinking and experimental mindsets are celebrated. where folks have the energy, freedom, and access to resources to chase bigger bets—even if there is a risk of failure. i’m grateful/fortunate that Simple Ventures is one of those rare pockets, but on a city-level, it’s not nearly enough. we need 10x more of that energy. 100x. we need to get a little “weird” (in the cracked founder kind of way) and we ought to celebrate more of our failures. openness to failure helps us sharpen our bets, increases our surface area for luck, and improves the expected value (ev) of the next swing. but from an ev lens, we’re too focused on downside protection and not enough on high upside bets. as i reflect, i feel like the risk-taking energy was “healthier” (albeit more concentrated) when i was getting started in the Toronto tech scene in early 2015 compared to today. story time: a decade ago I joined a pre-product, pre-revenue startup called Borrowell in a new accelerator called OneEleven (back when it was physically based at 111 Richmond St and it was novel, even cool, to have a space below Google). OneEleven circa 2014-2016 was home to then early-stage companies like Maple (getmaple.ca), Clio - Cloud-Based Legal Technology, Wealthsimple, KOHO, Jobber, Tulip, and Opencare.com. that mid 2010s Toronto cohort was special. startups had “Bautista bat flip” energy ⚾️. optimism was in the air. when you looked around, even “senior” leaders were free to openly be “weird” in their approach. they didn’t care if people thought they acted “senior” or not (caring about seeming senior is Bay Street energy). they just wanted to build. with pizza flowing, teams hung out to socialize and jam on ideas, and, for some reason, people e-scootered around the office. most importantly, the foundation for billions of value and a few unicorns was created in a short period. why? i reckon we had a bit more swagger and the m.o. was to take bets. Bay Area vibes. experiments weren’t window dressing, they were the main event. for example, the choice in mid-2016 at Borrowell to pivot from a p2p loan business to Canada’s 1st free credit score platform was a big swing with high risk & upside. 3M users later, the experiment paid off. i remain optimistic about our ability to build a new vibe for 2025 and stack the odds in our favour. we can protect against downside risk AND allow for uncapped upside by running more experiments & taking big bets. why not us? we have the talent, and, believe it or not, the capital is available. it’s the best moment to build a venture in our lifetime from a technology perspective. there’s ample opportunity to take advantage of the back half of the roaring 20s. let’s go risk ON for 2025. it’s time to build in Toronto. 🌆

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What a tremendous conversation on AI in medicine from Stephanie Feals and Apurv Gupta, MD, MPH, with Robert Pearl, M.D. and Sherri Douville. So many important (and some third-rail) topics covered: productivity and accuracy, the perverse incentives of a volume-based healthcare system, (dis)trust of generative AI, privacy, education, and more. There are few professions where generative AI can have a more revolutionary and positive impact if done right and a more destructively negative impact if done wrong. How do we lean into the "right" and head off the "wrong" before it's too late?

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Good Canadian Kid Does and Sings AI Nick Frosst, co-founder of AI company Cohere, simultaneously leads a successful indie band called Good Kid. An unexpected blend of technology and music! Song recommendation: Listen to "Nomu" by Good Kid. The song includes interesting references to technological topics such as syntax, semantics, and lost language - concepts related to the world of AI. https://lnkd.in/dKBpKx5F This shows how the band members' technological background influences their musical creation. "The syntax skips, semantics slip And what was left a growing cleft of language lost, tokens unknown" To view the full lyrics: https://lnkd.in/d-78VdXr A moment of nostalgia: "How do you convert PDF to JPG?" by the (Israeli) band Umlala? What a classic! Today, we'd ask an LLM how to do that ;-) https://lnkd.in/dyMiq9cv What musical association comes to your mind?

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My dad always told me: “Son! The Harder we work the "luckier" we get! He’s right! I’m hyped✌🏽😃to share that Happly.Ai has been named one of the **Top 100 AI Startups in Canada**! 🎉 But hold up—it gets even better! We’ve snagged a spot in the **Top 5** companies set to pitch on stage ALL IN Conference! This recognition is more than just a badge; it’s a testament to the relentless grind and passion our team pours into creating a game-changing platform that democratizes access to funding for ALL. 💪🏽💰 Huge love to the incredible crew at ** SCALE AI | Canada's AI Global Innovation Cluster ** Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute —y’all are the real MVPs! 🙌🏽🔥 A special shoutout to the visionary intrapreneurs, especially the amazing Isabelle, Charlotte and Patrick whose commitment elevates us every day. And let’s not forget the rockstars of our ecosystem, Stephanie of Trade Commissioner Service | Service des délégués commerciaux, Clara of Investissement Québec and Charline Québec Trade Office in Silicon Valley. Your connections and support have been game-changers for us. 🌟 Also thanks to "La Famille” at Next AI George, Jogral, Simon, Clara, Maud and the rest of the awesome humans there. This journey is just getting started, and I can’t wait to see where it takes us! Let’s keep pushing boundaries and breaking barriers together! 🚀💥 #ai #artificialintelligence #techstartups #innovation #canada

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The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive is one of Canada's most powerful tools for fostering tech innovation - enabling businesses to recoup up to 65% of their R&D salary costs. Here's the troubling reality though: While this program distributes ~$4B annually to 20,000 businesses, an unnecessary "SR&ED consulting industry" has emerged that extracts $400M-800M from these funds. Why? These consultants capitalize on companies' fears about complex paperwork, despite the fact that 94% of SR&ED applications are approved. They charge 10-20% of the tax credit simply to complete forms. Let that sink in: Nearly a billion dollars meant for Canadian innovation is instead diverted to middlemen who add minimal value. At Publicus, we're passionate about streamlining government processes through automation. While SR&ED reform isn't our current focus, we believe in raising awareness about the systemic, government-related inefficiencies that hold back Canadian tech companies. #CanadaTech #GovTech #Grants #Innovation

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A must-read! Thanks, Tim Sanders for the recommendation and the book itself! Not just due to their Canada-connection, Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb packed this ~200-page book with not just facts and figures, but frameworks and fascinating, fantastic food for thought. One key takeaway for me is to cut the use of 'insights' from my vocabulary when it comes to the impact that #AI brings to businesses (insights on the tech and trends are still great though, heck our team is called the Research Insights team). When we think about the power that AI is bringing to enterprises, it is all about its impact on 𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 and 𝕕𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤. Saying that it helps businesses generate or gain insights is too surface level and not getting to the core of AI's capabilities. Business leaders, take note: focus on what predictions your businesses rely on and then figure out if, how, and when AI can come and improve them.

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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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As the founder of tabii.cloud, I’ve learned a thing or two about staying laser-focused. 🎯 We’re all about one thing: providing private and secure SOCKS proxies for seamless access to the Canadian internet. 🇨🇦 In my previous startup gig, we tried to juggle too many balls at once. The result? Thrash—not the cool kind you find in skate parks, but the chaotic, work-sanity-draining kind. 🌀 The Power of Singular Purpose: Imagine a tightrope walker. Their entire existence hinges on that thin line. Similarly, when your startup zeroes in on a single product, it’s like finding your balance. 🎪 The Thrill of Mastery: Becoming the go-to in your niche is exhilarating. It’s not about being a jack-of-all-trades; it’s about being the ace. 🃏 Customer Love: When you pour heart and soul into one thing, your users feel it. They become loyal fans, spreading the word like confetti. 🎉 Peace Amid Chaos: Remember that startup chaos? Well, focus is your lifeboat. It keeps you afloat when the waves get wild. 🌊 So, embrace the Zen of Singularity and unleash a cascade of positive outcomes. 🙏 #StayFocused #TabiiCloud #StartupLife #TorontoTech

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We turned a skeptic into a full-fledged AI believer after closing a deal driven entirely by AI within just 30 days of launch. Two weeks ago, we went live with Zemlar Offices, Ontario's largest co-working operator with over 25 buildings. The Challenge: - High volume of inbound leads 24/7 - Leads coming from 10+ third-party sites - Limited capacity to respond quickly and convert effectively Waleed R. Javed, ZEMLAR Offices head of sales, knew there was money left on the table due to these challenges. But Zemlar was cautious about AI solutions after being burned before by a provider that couldn't handle their unique, complex workflows and that hallucinated too often. Fast forward two weeks: Our AI agent autonomously closed a sale for one of Zemlar's products. No human intervention. No phone calls. No 60-minute meetings. Just pure, efficient AI-driven sales. All in all, companies with genuine challenges are often the most open to trying new solutions. Past disappointments with AI can lead to caution, but also to greater appreciation when the right solution comes along. And in the next 6-12 months, most businesses will start to realize that AI Isn't replacing humans. It's augmenting their capabilities, handling routine tasks so the sales team can focus on high-value interactions. P.S. Are you still skeptical?

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The 2024 Future of Work list highlights the next generation of startup companies that are revolutionizing the way we work. 3.4 billion workers show up for a job every single day. Most of those workers are unhappy, underpaid, and underappreciated. The Future of Work has now become an existential topic for companies around the world. Over the last decade, public Work Tech companies such as Workday, Atlassian, and monday.com have enabled companies to do more with less, automated repetitive tasks, and collaborated seamlessly across geographies and time zones. The companies recognized on the 2024 Future of Work 100 have raised a cumulative $30 billion in venture capital financing, with a total valuation over $140 billion. The ranking is represented by companies across 17 countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the USA. Airtable, a low-code platform for building collaborative apps, tops the 2024 list. The 2024 Future of Work 100 honorees showcase the diversity of WorkTech companies and highlight strong market capitalization, increased efficient growth, and a newfound focus on profitability. In addition, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an important theme with 93% of the recognized companies have implemented AI capabilities across their product lines. Business Wire #futureofwork #worktech #collaboration #startups #venturecapital Acadian Ventures

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🚀 AI For Everyone: Why I’m Leading Free Generative AI Workshops at Waterloo When no one else steps up, sometimes you just have to. At the University of Waterloo, I noticed something was missing: workshops for staff on how to use tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. These tools are transforming how we work, think, and create—but no one was teaching our colleagues how to embrace them. So I decided to do it myself. I’m running FREE hands-on workshops designed to upskill Waterloo staff, demystify generative AI, and show how these tools can empower—not intimidate. AI isn’t just for tech bros or engineers. It’s for all of us. 💡 I’ve been following AI for over 40 years, and while I don’t have a degree in AI or computer science, I do have a Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (#MBET) from the University of Waterloo, #Uwaterloo, and I’ve built a career on being an early adopter and I know how to make complex ideas accessible, actionable, and—most importantly—useful. For too long, the rewards of advanced technology have been gatekept by the tech elite. That ends now. ⚡️ These workshops are about one thing: AI for Everyone. I want my colleagues to feel confident and capable, using tools like ChatGPT and Copilot to enhance creativity, save time, and unlock potential. Why? Because it’s my moral imperative. Technology should empower people, not exclude them. If you’ve been avoiding AI out of fear or uncertainty, or you just want to upskill in a supportive, approachable environment, ask your boss for a workshop on generative technology. It may not be me delivering it, but there is someone out there who can. Together, we’ll make generative AI accessible, understandable, and useful. Let’s stop letting others define the future. It’s time to claim the benefits of AI for ourselves. #AIForEveryone #GenerativeAI #FreeWorkshops #Upskilling #UniversityOfWaterloo #EthicalAI #ChatGPT #Copilot

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