Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Brain Toronto

canada.googleblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#61

Post by obstacle1 »

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.

There's nothing there. It's a suburban wasteland.

Yes, you can buy a house there more cheaply than in Toronto. But is owning a pile of bricks worth living in a wasteland? Personal preference, as they say.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#62

Post by david-gpu »

029r0823jr wrote: post #43
FT_intern wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waterloo is best at bleeding great Canadian engineers to the USA

Because U of T engineers decide to stay in Toronto out of the goodness of their hearts...? If an engineer stays in Canada it's certainly not because they're being adequately compensated.

Some of us would rather live in a country with better welfare even if we won't directly benefit from it. Compensation is good enough up here IMO.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#63

Post by bigmanwalter »

obstacle1 wrote: post #60
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks for having my back :)

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#64

Post by geodel »

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.

Till Canadian companies produce profits at US level, matching salaries seems like impossible. Same will be true for Europe also.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#65

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.

Being able to buy a bit faster doesn't make up for how badly poverty is treated in America. I would argue, in fact, that although it may be harder for a tech worker to break into ownership in Canada, your family can still take advantage of the countless social programs that aren't available to all hardworking people in America :)

And there's more to Canada than Toronto. Montreal has great rent prices and a fun-loving tech scene, and a very unique culture. Quebec has $5 a day daycare, free healthcare for all, and McGill university which is ranked as one of the best research institutions in the world despite having the cheapest tuition in North America (although prices for non-residents are quite a bit higher).

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#66

Post by cicero19 »

username223 wrote: post #38
karpathy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't too surprised. If you look at the Vector Institute website ( http://vectorinstitute.ai/#people ), you'll see many additional well-known researchers involved, in addition to Geoff Hinton: David Duvenaud, Sanja Fidler, Brendan Frey, Roger Grosse, Geoffrey Hinton, Jordan Jacobs, Tomi Poutanen, Daniel Roy, Raquel Urtasun, Richard Zemel. there is a lot more momentum at UofT in this specific area of research, more…

Hinton? Wow. After decades of going on about neural nets while most machine learning folks pursued other things, he's sure milking his 15 minutes of fame for all they're worth!

He has achieved "rock-star" status in academia - quite deservingly. I wonder how much more he will contribute directly to the field during the remainder of his career. I suppose once you reach his level focusing on these grander initiatives will help create a legacy.

Funny aside: I saw him walking up University Ave a few weeks ago. He was all bundled up in a coat and hood. It was cold out, but I also suspect he is becoming recognizable as a celebrity by some and prefers to keep a low profile. If I had recognized him earlier I probably would have tried to stop and chat.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#67

Post by Kephael »

astrodust wrote: post #16
karpathy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't too surprised. If you look at the Vector Institute website ( http://vectorinstitute.ai/#people ), you'll see many additional well-known researchers involved, in addition to Geoff Hinton: David Duvenaud, Sanja Fidler, Brendan Frey, Roger Grosse, Geoffrey Hinton, Jordan Jacobs, Tomi Poutanen, Daniel Roy, Raquel Urtasun, Richard Zemel. there is a lot more momentum at UofT in this specific area of research, more…

The University of Toronto is probably a lot better funded than Waterloo, too, has a massive student base, and has connections to other local universities that are also much larger than Waterloo like York and Ryerson. This selection will certainly put a dent in Waterloo's reputation, though with any luck they'll be able to capitalize on it in some capacity due to their proximity.

I think Waterloo would be an unknown school if it were not for their coop program.

Re: Google Brain Toronto

#70

Post by nebabyte »

t3io wrote: post #49

Soo much money being thrown behind a methodology/philosophy that is potentially on its last legs.... So many bets being placed on gift horses hoping for a high return. So little efforts looking and/or thinking beyond a narrow box. So much disruption potential outside of mainstream currents. And to think.. All one needs is a computer and an idea. What unfolds in the times ahead is going to be one for the history books…

Literally almost everything that happens, and everything in the past few decades of tech anyways, is "one for the history books"

History books contain a lot of inane details no one besides readers of history books are ever charged with knowing. (Then there's the important big-picture stuff and sub-arcs that we're supposed to remember lest we repeat them, but most people have already stopped caring by that point because of the inane details)

Post reply on HN