Canada’s big corporations team up to help AI startups

TORONTO • In an effort to forge partnerships in a sector that will affect every industry, some of Canada’s largest corporations are contributing to a $5 million fund for artificial intelligence startups.

At a panel Wednesday to celebrate the launch of the program, called NextAI, executives from Royal Bank of Canada, Magna International Inc., Bank of Nova Scotia and the Business Development Bank of Canada investment arm BDC Capital laid out their vision for how artificial intelligence can transform their businesses. They’re providing funding with no strings attached to the program, which will provide artificial intelligence startups with $200,000 in addition to access to technology, mentorship and education.

Artificial intelligence, also known as machine learning or deep learning, is a method of training computers to learn like children by processing huge sets of data with software that mimics the neural networks in the human brain. Machine learning is already powering algorithms that allow Netflix Inc. to predict what a user will want to watch next, help doctors diagnose diseases by comparing thousands of similar medical images and help autonomous vehicles decide how to react to objects in their paths.

Don Walker, chief executive of the auto parts manufacturer Magna, is particularly interested in the latter application. He said he’s contributing to NextAI because cementing Canada’s status as a leader in the field benefits not only his own company, but the entire economy.

“We have some of the brightest AI people in the world coming from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. The concern is, the best people in the field are being hired away to Silicon Valley,” Walker said. “We can keep Ontario and Canada one of the leaders in the world in artificial intelligence, which I think will give us a competitive advantage.”

The companies contributing to NextAI are essentially making donations, taking no equity and making no partnership deals with the companies. Walker said Magna and other companies do plan to present the startups with artificial intelligence problems to solve that are relevant to their businesses.

Anthony Lacavera, chairman of Globalive Capital and co-chair of NextAI parent organization NEXT Canada, said the program’s major objective is to prevent the The interface that animates Roboy, a humanoid robot developed at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich. brain drain of Canada’s most talented software engineers. Canada was home to the researchers who kick-started today’s artificial intelligence boom and Canadians have already built many successful companies in the field, but the country risks losing its lead, Lacavera said.

“Canada has a small, but fleeting, competitive advantage in AI,” he said. “How do we get people to build the companies in Canada? How do we get them funded?”

Michael Zerbs, executive vice-president and co-head of technology at Scotiabank, said he thinks artificial intelligence can help the bank improve its customer service. He gave the example of a customer who is late with a credit card payment, with artificial intelligence able to analyze past payment patterns and determine whether the most effective action is a phone call, a request to come into the branch or simply leaving the client alone.

“We’ve very aggressively brought in data scientists and paired them with engineers,” Zerbs said. “We need to know more about our customers to make the customer experience better and better.”

Zerbs said NextAI is just one of many partnerships Scotiabank is forging with accelerators and universities working in artificial intelligence. Helping Canada’s leading entrepreneurs and thinkers in the field is good for everyone, he said.

“We feel we have a strong commitment to the communities we serve,” he said. “Making sure we connect with those companies... to essentially get the latest and greatest in new ideas that are being brought to market, that’s what’s in it for Scotiabank.”