Canada's big corporations teaming up to help AI startups

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 morning 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 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.