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Google Brain Toronto

canada.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Brain Toronto

#51

Post by trapperkeeper79 »

rand_r wrote: post #26
AdamSC1 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? This is an odd choice. Google just built their massive new campus in Waterloo, and University of Waterloo is one of the best engineer schools and computer science schools in the world, but they build this an hour away in a market that is much more expensive? An odd choice for sure.

From the perspective of someone who's lived in both cities, it makes perfect sense. Toronto is a much much nicer place to live and it'll be way easier to attract talent to it. I wouldn't move back to Waterloo for any amount of money.

Why? I've never lived there but it seems one of the few places with tech jobs and houses that don't cost a million bucks.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#52

Post by etiam »

"Posted by Geoffrey Hinton" it may be, but "authored by Geoffrey Hinton" if there's any truth to it at all must surely be true only in the most superficial and technical sense. With all the marketing speak in that piece it's completely alien to Hinton and very much in line with coming out of some corporate spin department.

Looking beyond the presentation though, I find this an interesting and important development for the field. I'm inclined to think there are plenty of valuable researchers who will work for the vector institute in Toronto who would not have gone to work for Google Brain in the SF Bay area.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#54

Post by bigmanwalter »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #50
perhonen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does UofT - I myself and at least a dozen other 1T7 grads I know personally are headed south as soon as we graduate. This is a Canada-wide problem which won't be fixed unless salaries equalize.

Spot on. This new institute (and other govt efforts like it) all fail to answer this fundamental question - why would someone work at half the pay (or less) if they were a Canadian citizen? It is a chicken-and-egg problem .. salaries and labour pool quality go hand in hand.

Some of us enjoy living in a more equal society where people who are down on their luck still have the opportunity to afford healthcare and higher ed.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#55

Post by bigmanwalter »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #51
rand_r wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the perspective of someone who's lived in both cities, it makes perfect sense. Toronto is a much much nicer place to live and it'll be way easier to attract talent to it. I wouldn't move back to Waterloo for any amount of money.

Why? I've never lived there but it seems one of the few places with tech jobs and houses that don't cost a million bucks.

Waterloo is great for backyards and parking. Toronto is great for urban living.

Take your pick :)

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#56

Post by cicero19 »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #50
perhonen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does UofT - I myself and at least a dozen other 1T7 grads I know personally are headed south as soon as we graduate. This is a Canada-wide problem which won't be fixed unless salaries equalize.

Spot on. This new institute (and other govt efforts like it) all fail to answer this fundamental question - why would someone work at half the pay (or less) if they were a Canadian citizen? It is a chicken-and-egg problem .. salaries and labour pool quality go hand in hand.

Exactly. To invite people to stay here we need unicorn companies that young talent actually want to work for. I don't think this solves that problem as efficiently as possible. Would they be better giving that money to local startups in the space in hopes they become a unicorn and stay in Canada?

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#57

Post by trapperkeeper79 »

bigmanwalter wrote: post #54
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on. This new institute (and other govt efforts like it) all fail to answer this fundamental question - why would someone work at half the pay (or less) if they were a Canadian citizen? It is a chicken-and-egg problem .. salaries and labour pool quality go hand in hand.

Some of us enjoy living in a more equal society where people who are down on their luck still have the opportunity to afford healthcare and higher ed.

Equal society? Lets see you buy a detached house in Toronto if you are a first generation immigrant, and your parents are not loaded. If you do not own property today, I don't see a way to EVER afford it in Toronto. Our society is hell-bent on taxing income when we should really be taxing wealth. The latest budget is fairly against young people in favor of old people. But to each their own I guess.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#58

Post by tmsldd »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #22
dukeluke wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those jobs would have been shipped to India eventually anyway. Global corporations don't care about silly things like stable economies. They care about the bottom line. Edit: to those downvoting me, can you please explain why? Am I wrong in some way?

India doesn't have top universities and top research talent.

If the prophecy materializes into a exodus of brain from the Valley, I would expect very skilled and trained Indians to go back and, depending on the environment they find home, there would be no reason why their couldn't stabling top research and start ups in their homeland.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#59

Post by bigmanwalter »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #57
bigmanwalter wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us enjoy living in a more equal society where people who are down on their luck still have the opportunity to afford healthcare and higher ed.

Equal society? Lets see you buy a detached house in Toronto if you are a first generation immigrant, and your parents are not loaded. If you do not own property today, I don't see a way to EVER afford it in Toronto. Our society is hell-bent on taxing income when we should really be taxing wealth. The latest budget is fairly against young people in favor of old people. But to each their own I guess.

I never said Canadian society is perfectly equal, just more equal than US society. Sure property distribution is a massive issue but that's the case in any urban centre. There's a lot of progress left to be made but that doesn't mean we should just give up and head south.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#60

Post by obstacle1 »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #57
bigmanwalter wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us enjoy living in a more equal society where people who are down on their luck still have the opportunity to afford healthcare and higher ed.

Equal society? Lets see you buy a detached house in Toronto if you are a first generation immigrant, and your parents are not loaded. If you do not own property today, I don't see a way to EVER afford it in Toronto. Our society is hell-bent on taxing income when we should really be taxing wealth. The latest budget is fairly against young people in favor of old people. But to each their own I guess.

>Equal society

Conveniently, you chopped the word "more" off of "more equal society". Kind of unfair to argue against a point the person didn't make.

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