Showcasing Alberta’s AI excellence:
Experts and leaders will converge in Edmonton for the inaugural AI week, hosted by the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
Over the past two decades Alberta has solidified its reputation as western Canada’s hub of artificial intelligence and machine learning excellence, attracting international talent, industry innovation and encouraging leading-edge research.
Now, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) wants to shine a spotlight on the expertise flourishing across the province with the inaugural AI week in Edmonton, from May 24 to 27. Industry professionals, educators and thought leaders from the global AI and machine learning community are expected to converge on the city for the four-day conference, with guests expected from dozens of countries across the world.
The hybrid conference includes in-person and online components that will allow guests to immerse themselves in the latest research and uncover the province’s deep history in AI innovations. Tickets are available at ai-week.ca.
“Over the past 20 years, Alberta has emerged as one of the world’s top destinations for AI research and application,” says Amii CEO Cam Linke. “With AI Week, we’re putting a global spotlight on the province and welcoming the world’s AI community to experience what many in the field have known for a long time: that Alberta is at the forefront of the AI revolution. AI Week isn’t just a celebration of 20 years of AI excellence – it’s a launching point for the next 20 years of advancement.”
The jam-packed agenda features more than 20 events taking place at locations across the city, including presentations from Alona Fyshe and Martha White, Amii Fellows and Canada CIFAR AI Chairs. Fyshe’s presentation will examine what brains and AI can tell us about one another while White will highlight innovative applications of reinforcement learning.
The conference will also feature an academic keynote from Richard S. Sutton, Amii’s Chief Scientific Advisor, who is also a University of Alberta professor and a Distinguished Research Scientist at DeepMind. Sutton, a leading expert in reinforcement learning, will highlight future research directions in the field.
"I look forward to meeting with, and learning from, the world's AI community at AI Week in Edmonton,” says Sutton.
One day of the conference is dedicated to a full-day academic symposium bringing together some of the top thinkers in AI and machine learning. Organized by Amii fellows from the University of Alberta — one of the world’s leading academic institutions for AI research — the symposium will include the chance for guests to witness demos and lab showcases from the Amii community.
Everyone is welcome to attend AI week, from those with a deep well of knowledge and decades of industry experience, to students and emerging researchers. The schedule includes lunch & learns, opportunities for collaboration, events discussing AI career paths for kids, a networking and talent mixer connecting career hunters with top companies, as well as mixers and socials to interact in less formal settings.
One of three Canadian centres for artificial intelligence excellence, Amii is non-profit dedicated to cutting-edge research in AI and machine learning with a goal of supporting industry adoption of scientific innovations. Created in 2002 and now part of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, its mission is to support the advancement of machine learning and AI as the main drivers to grow Alberta’s economy sustainably and solidify the province’s position as a global leader. To date, more than $600 million in venture capital financing has been secured by Amii alumni, including $450 million raised by Canadian-based businesses.