Can combining deep learning (DL)— a subfield of artificial intelligence— with social network analysis (SNA), make social media contributions about extreme weather events a useful tool for crisis managers, first responders and government scientists? An interdisciplinary team of McGill researchers has brought these tools to the forefront in an effort to understand and manage extreme weather events.
For human beings, the ability to generalize – to extract broad principles from our experiences of the world and use these principles to help us make decisions in new situations – is an essential skill for navigating everyday life. But for those working in the field of artificial intelligence, getting machines to generalize in this way has been a notoriously difficult challenge.
February 14, 2020 |Rapid advances in facial-recognition technology have the potential for vast social consequences. In response to the scale and speed of these developments and the clear potential for harm, a movement has emerged to ban facial recognition. In this op-ed, Max Bell School professor Taylor Owen and Nasma Ahmed call for the need to move ahead with caution and deliberation, highlighting the urgency for regulatory frameworks.
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine lies in its ability to find important statistical patterns in large datasets. A study published today is an important proof of concept for how AI can help doctors and brain tumour patients make better treatment decisions.
Open source app helps predict brain tumour malignancy and patient survival
The power of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine lies in its ability to find important statistical patterns in large datasets. A study published today is an important proof of concept for how AI can help doctors and brain tumour patients make better treatment decisions.
New technique could be used to choose best therapies for patients and measure their effectiveness
Evaluating the effectiveness of therapies for neurodegenerative diseases is often difficult because each patient’s progression is different. A new study shows artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of blood samples can predict and explain disease progression, which could one day help doctors choose more appropriate and effective treatments for patients.
Congratulations to Professors Tal ArbelԻ Christophe Dubach who has just been named as two of the outstanding researchers to join the prestigious CIFAR AI Program, the goal of which is to "recruit and retain in Canada some of the world's leading researchers in AI and provide them with long-term, dedicated research funding to support their research programs, and to help them train the next generation of AI leaders" (
CIFAR today announced its newest cohort of Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, which includes nine researchers from 㽶Ƶ, bringing the total number of McGill researchers named to the program to 17. These top academic researchers are part of the $125 million Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, the world’s first national strategy of its kind. The Canada CIFAR AI Chair Program represents an investment of $30 million at nine universities, and mobilizes over 150 researchers across the country.
Music, including songs with words, appears to be a universal phenomenon according to a paper published this week in Science. An international team of researchers involving musicians, data scientists, psychologists, political scientists and linguists, including one from 㽶Ƶ, reached this conclusion after five years of collaboration, bringing together a broad range of skills and tools to the question of whether music is universal.
Using broad datasets to arrive at deep conclusions about music
ECE Professor Tal Arbel recently presented research at the “AI and the Future of Cancer Research” (From the Goodman Cancer Research Centre’s Public Lecture Series).
Professor Arbel spoke about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and specifically her research focus on computer vision, already showing clinical success in the fields of brain tumours and multiple sclerosis.
AI and virtual reality can determine neurosurgeon expertise with 90% accuracy
Machine learning-guided virtual reality simulators can help neurosurgeons develop the skills they need before they step in the operating room, according to a new study.
Mila – Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence officially inaugurated its new premises at the O Mile-Ex complex this week, in the presence of the Minister of Economy and Innovation for the government of Quebec, Pierre Fitzgibbon, and more than 200 partners and players in the Quebec artificial intelligence ecosystem.
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) today announced the inaugural cohort of 29 Canada CIFAR AI (CCAI) Chairs, including six from McGill. These top academic researchers—including Doina PrecupԻJoëlle Pineau—are named as part of the $125 million Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, and will help maintain Canada’s leadership in artificial intelligence research. The CCAI Chair Program represents an investment of $30 million at nine universities across the country.
By Meaghan Thurston
For Joelle Pineau, becoming a medical doctor was—in her words—not in the cards. However, this Associate Professor from McGill`s School of Computer Science is now the driving force behind promising research whose aim is to use AI to improve the treatment of cancer and heart disease.
At the AAAI meeting, Peter Henderson, a computer scientist at 㽶Ƶ in Montreal, showed that the performance of AIs designed to learn by trial and error is highly sensitive not only to the exact code used, but also to the random numbers generated to kick off training, and to “hyperparameters”—settings that are not core to the algorithm but that affect how quickly it learns.