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Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

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Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#71

Post by miguelrochefort »

edblarney wrote: post #70
miguelrochefort wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The people here do not have any interest in building it. I have. Where do I start?

You can start by getting the Quebec government to reduce the highest bracket income taxes which are a full 10% greater than the rest of Canada and about 12% greater than NY/California. Just kidding :) I would say if you want to help, go and work for a startup, or a growing private company that is not just a services entity who's #1 client is the government.

You speak as if salaries in Montreal would reach the highest tax bracket.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#72

Post by edblarney »

bogomipz wrote: post #36
edblarney wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Montreal has more students/capita than anywhere in North America, due to a clustering of big Unis downtown. So, in a way, it has a 'geography' advantage to such numbers :). That said, I'm highly doubtful that they will be able to effectively leverage the knowledge. Bombardier etc. are slow, monolithic entities, who will no doubt take AI up, but I wonder how effectively and profitably for local entities. Air Canada is…

>"Montreal has more students/capita than anywhere in North America, due to a clustering of big Unis downtown." This statement is not true, its not even close: Montreal with a population of 1.65 million and 248K students would mean around 15% of the population are students. Larger students per capita in North America would include: Ames, Iowa 34.2 percent. Ithaca, New York 32.8 percent. State College, Pennsylvania 31.…

Sorry to disagree.

"With access to six universities and twelve junior colleges in an 8 kilometer (5 mi) radius, Montreal, Quebec (Canada) has the highest proportion of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America. "

All of the examples you gave are small college towns.

'Ames' 'Ithaca' 'State College' - those are not cities etc.

Montreal has 6 major universities and other colleges crammed right downtown in a tiny radius.

San Francisco does not have 300K students in the city. There are only 800K residents in SF, that would make almost 50% students :). The 'Bay Area' - sure. But the bay is huge - and not really even a city.

Chicago is a massive, sprawling city with 600K students.

Dallas-Forth Worth - again - massive, sprawling cities, geographically spread out.

Montreal - not including the suburbs, just the city proper, has 100's of thousands of students.

I think the only other city with the student density would be Boston and the numbers may be off because Harvard and MIT are technically in Cambridge, not Boston.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#73

Post by edblarney »

bogomipz wrote: post #41
Vinsalg wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's referring to the fact that the Uni campuses are situated directly downtown. Something rare in other American cities.

Well that would be a measure of density - more students per square meter or something. I'm not sure why that would be relevant if we're talking about the city as a whole.

Montreal has a bunch of major universities right downtown, in the city core/proper. Not the 'major metro area'.

In most other cities, they are way spread out in the region.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#74

Post by bogomipz »

edblarney wrote: post #72
bogomipz wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Montreal has more students/capita than anywhere in North America, due to a clustering of big Unis downtown." This statement is not true, its not even close: Montreal with a population of 1.65 million and 248K students would mean around 15% of the population are students. Larger students per capita in North America would include: Ames, Iowa 34.2 percent. Ithaca, New York 32.8 percent. State College, Pennsylvania 31.…

Sorry to disagree. "With access to six universities and twelve junior colleges in an 8 kilometer (5 mi) radius, Montreal, Quebec (Canada) has the highest proportion of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America. " All of the examples you gave are small college towns. 'Ames' 'Ithaca' 'State College' - those are not cities etc. Montreal has 6 major universities and other colleges crammed right downtow…

What the OP stated and what I was responding to was:

>"Montreal has more students/capita than anywhere in North America, due to a clustering of big Unis downtown"

They did not state Montreal has the highest student population density areas which is what you are now saying by qualifying that with some spatial component. They said highest "per capita."

They also did not specify "city", they said "anywhere."

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#75

Post by edblarney »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #71
edblarney wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can start by getting the Quebec government to reduce the highest bracket income taxes which are a full 10% greater than the rest of Canada and about 12% greater than NY/California. Just kidding :) I would say if you want to help, go and work for a startup, or a growing private company that is not just a services entity who's #1 client is the government.

You speak as if salaries in Montreal would reach the highest tax bracket.

"You speak as if salaries in Montreal would reach the highest tax bracket."

Ha ha - you nailed it.

I believe the 'extra 10%' kicks in at only 85K CDN. Which is not that much. It's like 65K USD. A pittance.

This has to be one hugely odd thing about Montreal - especially with exchange rates, salaries are so low.

You might think that's a good thing, but really, it's not because talent will leave.

On the other hand, if you have something good going, you can get good talent cheap, and perhaps pay them above market rates.

Even though the cost of living is commensurate - it's hard for young people to factor that in. They see $150K salary in the US and glaze over it.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#76

Post by edblarney »

jcranmer wrote: post #60
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

It's not just Americans - it's the English and really Canadians as well.

It's because English is the language that 'everyone else speaks'.

There's just no reason to learn French or German when you can 100% get by in France and Germany speaking English.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#77

Post by mablap »

raverbashing wrote: post #59
mablap wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

    separatist BS
So millions of people who feel strongly about things you don't agree with is bullshit? You might have been too harsh, but you are not helping your case.

The city's aiming high. Some people there have a dream. And all you can do is bash them and denigrate them and tell us how their (in some cases actually very reasonable) political opinions will bring their demise. Should they just not even try? I don't understand your logic.

BTW, it was obviously a PR piece. At least we agree on that :)

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#78

Post by mablap »

edblarney wrote: post #68
mablap wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no elite Universities in Quebec (McGill is pretty good, but not French), and there is zero access to networks from elite schools among Francophones. Another blanket statement. What constitutes an "elite" university? The Francophones in Quebec have traditionally been, as a population, mostly against making "big bucks". One of the reasons was the religion. The other was that the anglophone ruling class were m…

You're taking this personally, which I think is clouding your view. You don't need to lecture me on the history of Quebec, I'm well aware. Harvard and Stanford are 'elite' schools. U. Laval is not. "Do you have any idea how big is the "circus"?" - it's somewhat less than $1 Billion revenue - which is not that huge. Desjardins? Ha ... I use Desjardins as my main account - it's backwards and the most 'behind' of any ma…

I appreciate that I may come across as personally irritated - I am indeed a bit. Quebec bashing does get tiring, and your condescending tone and seemingly facile arguments did annoy me.

I don't understand the logic of people who hold the arguments you bring forth. It's as if because you're not "elite" (whatever that means) now, you will never be.

Yoshua Bengio's dream (if I may) is to make Montreal a global hotspot of AI research. That's all. Now you (and others) can bash it all you want, blame the local population, blame the language, blame the education system - whatever.

To me, the fact that some people are reacting the way you are is actually confirmation that things are doing well - quite contrary to your frankly misguided assumption that I have a defeatist opinion of the city and the province in general.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#79

Post by sebnukem2 »

hackerboos wrote: post #63

I've been thinking about making the move from Toronto to Montreal. Way cheaper rents and the city has better transport than Toronto, but I'm worried that getting by in only English is going to be an issue.

A lot of people I work with in Montréal only speak English. It's not a big deal because everyone else is bilingual so the communication isn't broken. The main problem is when it comes to finding a job - speaking French and English is usually a core requirement. If you don't, you'll have to compensate.

Re: Montreal Is Leading the AI World Takeover

#80

Post by mac01021 »

jeffmcmahan wrote: post #57

"AI is now the technology shaping our world more than ever before." This, the first sentence of the article, does not express a thought. Read it carefully. It's on a par with "More people have been to Russia than I have."

It's not quite that bad.

If you make the (ridiculous) assumption that, at any given time, there is exactly one technology that is shaping 5he world more than it ever did before, then the sentence becomes intelligible. Of course, that's not what they meant...

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