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Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

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Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#51

Post by branchless »

kelvin0 wrote: post #39

I think there are a lot of Intelligent, Educated, Talented and Creative people in Montreal. But that probably can be said of many places across the globe. So the raw materials for successful tech hub are (partially) available. However, the government seems to to the major 'driving' force behind this, just like they are doing with the Video Game industry in the Province, with big subsidies, tax breaks which 'artificia…

Media City has been around more than one electoral cycle in Montreal.

Also here the govt is selecting the kind of jobs via tax breaks. The USA has tax breaks for Facebook/Amazon and many others, but it's not targeted it's just a catch-all rule of big companies paying no tax.

The state in any country creates the environment in which business lives. The idea that the USA is some kind of "natural" environment for business and everything else is synthetic is not something I can agree with.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#52

Post by _delirium »

edblarney wrote: post #28
thedevil wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They learned how to train deep nets ten years ago (and are getting better fast as new techniques are invented). As a result, neural nets started taking over. Big Everything is important, but without the new techniques for deep nets, AI would not be so sexy right now.

This should not be downvoted, he is essentially correct. 'AI' has always been around, but the 'big leap' we've seen recently is entirely due to researchers finally able to make Neural Nets actually work :). 'Deep Learning' really refers to a specific kind of Neural Network. The first application was image recognition. It's also used a lot now in voice recognition - and they're trying to jam it into everything possibl…

Even that I don't think involved much of a "eureka" moment, but mostly incremental improvements due to the environment changing. A lot of neural-net techniques from the '80s and '90s that didn't work that well at the time, now work well because we have sufficient data and computation power (especially via GPUs) to make them work. There have been improvements as well of course, but they're evolutionary improvements, while the big breakthrough was big data + big compute.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#53

Post by joshwcomeau »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #49

It's interesting most Americans don't seem to be aware of how much good tech work goes on in Quebec (say kay-bec not kwa-bec). I went a few years to work on SoftImage3D and it was the same with computer graphics, lots of talent and innovation I was not aware of. It may not be the "Silicon Valley of AI" but the point is they are a hotbed. I would recommend it if you have an interest. People are very friendly, tons of…

Nit: Closer to 'kuh-bec' than 'Kay-bec'.

(Born and raised in Montreal)

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#54

Post by scrollaway »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #49

It's interesting most Americans don't seem to be aware of how much good tech work goes on in Quebec (say kay-bec not kwa-bec). I went a few years to work on SoftImage3D and it was the same with computer graphics, lots of talent and innovation I was not aware of. It may not be the "Silicon Valley of AI" but the point is they are a hotbed. I would recommend it if you have an interest. People are very friendly, tons of…

I've been considering for a while moving to Montreal to be closer to the US for practical reasons. Any idea how easy that is as a french citizen?

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#55

Post by StyloBill »

scrollaway wrote: post #54
WhitneyLand wrote: post #49

It's interesting most Americans don't seem to be aware of how much good tech work goes on in Quebec (say kay-bec not kwa-bec). I went a few years to work on SoftImage3D and it was the same with computer graphics, lots of talent and innovation I was not aware of. It may not be the "Silicon Valley of AI" but the point is they are a hotbed. I would recommend it if you have an interest. People are very friendly, tons of…

I've been considering for a while moving to Montreal to be closer to the US for practical reasons. Any idea how easy that is as a french citizen?

French citizen living in Montreal. The easiest way is probably to come here with a PVT (Programme Vacances-Travail, or Working Holiday VISA) but you must be under 35.

You could also find a firm willing to hire you but there will be paperwork and they'll have to prove that they haven't found a Canadian citizen for the position you'll occupy. It's a bit of a pain for the company but some companies are used to this (consulting firms mostly). You'll then have a 2 years VISA + working permit.

Or you can go the permanent resident way, from France, but it's gonna take a long time (often 3+ years).

My advice is to come here as a tourist for a few weeks to have a feeling of the city. Try to come in winter, as it's a bit harsh and a non negligible number of expats go back to their home countries after their first winter here. Other than that, it's a really beautiful place and I love living there (been almost 5 years now).

Hope it's helpful!

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#56

Post by WhitneyLand »

joshwcomeau wrote: post #53
WhitneyLand wrote: post #49

It's interesting most Americans don't seem to be aware of how much good tech work goes on in Quebec (say kay-bec not kwa-bec). I went a few years to work on SoftImage3D and it was the same with computer graphics, lots of talent and innovation I was not aware of. It may not be the "Silicon Valley of AI" but the point is they are a hotbed. I would recommend it if you have an interest. People are very friendly, tons of…

Nit: Closer to 'kuh-bec' than 'Kay-bec'. (Born and raised in Montreal)

Thanks for the refinement.

Sometimes when I say poutine people think I'm meaning prostitute so I can definitely use the help :).

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#58

Post by mablap »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #34
mablap wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone flag this comment? I don't have the option. I had written a proper response but the level of ignorance and apparent hatred displayed in your comment makes me doubt you would have read it.

While these may not be pleasant attitudes, the effects are real. There's a pretty big disincentive for anglophone engineers to move to Montreal, say from Toronto. Not sure about Waterloo. Waterloo's kind of dead, so I imagine graduates being glad to move anywhere more interesting.

Are you in Toronto? What makes people hesitate before moving to Montreal? The usual "disincentive" is the language - a lot of people (including immigrants) just don't care about learning French. Personally though, I have met plenty of immigrants (at school and work) and from my own sampling, the more educated immigrants all learn French - it's a no-brainer for them. They consider it a genuine advantage, not a chore. For natives though, that's another story.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#59

Post by raverbashing »

mablap wrote: post #19
raverbashing wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quel niveau d'ignorance? Il y a aucune haine, il y a seulement des faits Maybe that's why a lot of immigrants (or even the natives that speak English) leave Quebec as soon as they can.

Puisque tu insiste... -- Self-delusions of grandeur of Quebeckers are funny. What does this article have to do with "Quebeckers"? If you had frequented any of the mentioned universities you would know they are full of foreign students, especially so in the graduate programs. 150 hackers != the whole province. Too bad they can't attract talent and can't use the ones they attracted there You are self-contradicting. Goo…

I may have been too harsh, but there are issues that merit discussion

> What does this article have to do with "Quebeckers"? If you had frequented any of the mentioned universities you would know they are full of foreign students, especially so in the graduate programs

Because it overly emphasizes the importance of Montreal in the DL area. It really sounds like someone exaggerating it, but it could be only a PR piece.

Having 150 research students is important, but having an industry to support that is essencial. Do you think the 150 will be hired by the new Google lab?

> They're merely pointing out that recent investments and research base are putting it in a very good position worldwide. Is that false?

Not false. But we'll see what comes out of it.

> What does "French Quebec" have to do with this story?

You're saying that companies have no issues with Loi 101? (for those who don't know - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language )

You believe that Quebec hasn't shot itself in the foot with all the separatist BS? Not even the Bank of Montreal HQ is not in Montreal.

> You hate French speaking Québécois

Absolutely not, I even like them better in a lot of aspects to people from other parts of Canada (maybe the Vancouverites are nicer, though)

But (some of them) do have racist attitudes towards foreigners, even towards the French

Which boils down to: will the graduates from those Deep Learning programs manage to stay in Montreal? Or they will have to go somewhere else for jobs?

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#60

Post by jcranmer »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #48
gerbilly wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The language issue cannot be overlooked - a little less than 1/2 of Montreal is primarily English speaking A Joke for you: Little Johnny asks his mother: what does the word "bilingual" mean? The mother answers, a person who speaks two languages. Then Johnny asks, what do you call a person who speaks three languages then? The mother answers: "trilingual." How about one language? "American"

Not sure where this myth comes from. America is a land of immigrants, and hundreds of languages are spoken here. Right up there with India and Indonesia. http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=15941

The US is a very diverse place, compared to many other countries. In the place I grew up, the schools basically had to translate their materials for parents into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Farsi (looks like Urdu has now been added to that list). Nevertheless, it is a common stereotype that American tourists have a reputation of being unwilling to put any effort into learning foreign languages.

I'll add that it appears to me that French-speakers appear to be the snottiest about it. I suspect that has much to do with the fact that English has largely supplanted French as the main international language of business and politics (which largely dates back to Wilson insisting that English be used when negotiating the Versailles treaty after WWI).

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