Toronto hopes to become the new Silicon Valley for artificial intelligence (A.I.) experts, and Trump's Immigration Policies are making that a very good probability. The recent battles over immigration in the U.S. have made many people feel unwelcome and others fearful of moving to America.
At a time when the U.S. is competing with China for A.I. talent, Trump's view on immigration is not going to help make America technologically great again.
In only the past few weeks, the Vector Institute located in Toronto, Canada opened its doors. In that short span of time, they are already attracting top students and researchers from Silicon Valley and universities around the U.S.
Google opening A.I. lab in Toronto
Jordan Jacobs, co-founder of the Vector Institute said they would be working with the Canadian government and various corporation to work on solving problems with the help of those seeking to get out of the U.S.
Making Toronto even more inviting is the recent announcement that Google will be opening an A.I. lab there very soon. Google and Vector plan on working together in the A.I. race. Jacobs told CNBC that geopolitics has a major role in what is happening right now. He said that people are reaching out to their institute because they say they don't want to live in the U.S.
Toronto is culturally diverse
He went on to say that Toronto is a culturally diverse and dynamic city, which more than half the people living in Toronto were born outside of Canada.
Jacobs continued by saying that it does not matter what part of the world you are from, Toronto is a community.
Although Toronto is an expensive city to live in it is cheaper than New York, London or Silicon Valley. Raquel Urtasun, co-founder of the Vector Institute, said many people have been asking when they will be able to send in their applications.
A.I. technology will be core focus
Urtasun said robotics and A.I. technology would be the institute's core focus with an added emphasis in natural language, deep learning, and machine learning. She is currently working on making autonomous vehicles safer and conducting research into machine perception.
With the help of the Canadian government and corporations, the Institute has already raised $180 million in support of their research facility.
The facility will help companies create hybrid structures and allow research to be conducted while also pursuing business opportunities such as consulting.
Institute wants to hire 5,000 graduates
Jacobs contends that until now, the main players in the A.I. talent race have been the U.S. and China. Today, Canada along with other countries are getting into the race and making it harder for the U.S. to recruit and keep these highly specialized workers.
There is a severe shortage of global researchers, said Jacobs, and in the next few years, he would like to make it possible to hire 5,000 “machine learning” graduates.
