How diversity will help Toronto win the AI race – MaRS Magazine

When we talk about the benefit of diversity to our society, we often speak in general terms. But spend time with the entrepreneurs fueling the remarkable surge in artificial-intelligence (AI) research and development now taking place in Toronto, and the benefits of diversity become apparent in concrete form. At a recent University of Toronto Rotman School of Management event showcasing business opportunities associated with the latest advances in AI, I saw venture demos from dozens of promising startups, all amid a crowd that was strikingly diverse even by Toronto standards. These things are awkward to quantify. But here's a random sequence of attendee surnames based on a scan of ID cards at the reception desk: Adejuwon, Ehrsam, Conde, Pal, Lepshokova, Dhamani, Kurian, Ing, MacGregor.