Socially Interactive Agents (SIAs) are physical or virtual embodied agents that display similar behavior as human multimodal behavior. Modeling SIAs' non-verbal behavior, such as speech and facial gestures, has always been a challenging task, given that a SIA can take the role of a speaker or a listener. A SIA must emit appropriate behavior adapted to its own speech, its previous behaviors (intra-personal), and the User's behaviors (inter-personal) for both roles. We propose AMII, a novel approach to synthesize adaptive facial gestures for SIAs while interacting with Users and acting interchangeably as a speaker or as a listener. AMII is characterized by modality memory encoding schema - where modality corresponds to either speech or facial gestures - and makes use of attention mechanisms to capture the intra-personal and inter-personal relationships. We validate our approach by conducting objective evaluations and comparing it with the state-of-the-art approaches.

A few weeks ago, François-Philippe Champagne, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the launch of the second phase of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This second phase, which is expected to benefit from an investment of more than $443 million, aims to attract the best talent, increase cutting-edge research capacity, and foster the commercialization and adoption of AI. In 2017, the Canadian government was the first country to establish a national AI strategy. CIFAR, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, was tasked with developing and leading this pan-Canadian strategy, initially funded with $125 million. CIFAR is working closely with the three national AI institutes: Mila in Montreal, the Vector Institute in Toronto and Amii in Edmonton, as well as with Canadian universities, hospitals and other organizations.

The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) is home to some of the world's top talent in ma.

Amii exists in large part thanks to crucial investments made by the Government of Alberta, CIFAR and Alberta Innovates – and our partnership with the University of Alberta. With renewed funding, we're able to continue our trajectory of long-established excellence in AI and machine learning and leverage scientific advancement to speed industry adoption, job creation and innovation for Alberta's most forward-thinking organizations.

The Alberta government is giving $9 million in funding to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) in an effort to promote the province's tech sector. The funding is made up of $4 million from Alberta Innovates and $5 million through the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction system. The government says it's Investment and Growth Strategy has identified developing Alberta's technology sector as a top priority. They hope it will make way for investment and innovation in other Alberta industries including agriculture, aviation and energy. "Our investment demonstrates that Alberta's government recognizes the important role that Amii and the University of Alberta plays in creating a stronger economy," said Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides.

Almost every group on earth is working on'deep learning' in some form. In Canada there are the big three research units: MILA at Montreal, Vector at Toronto, AMII at Edmonton. Both MILA and Vector have several research groups/universities affiliated to them in Quebec and Ontario respectively. Weirdly folks at UBC are also affiliated with Vector. AMII is mostly University of Alberta.

CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) and Imperial have announced a two-year agreement to collaborate on the development of Imperial's in-house machine learning capabilities, which will enable a range of applied artificial intelligence (AI) projects. Through these projects, Imperial will work to develop more effective ways to recover oil and gas resources, reduce environmental impacts and improve the safety of its workforce. "At Imperial, we are taking action to be a leader in advancing digital and AI technology across the value chain," said John Whelan, Imperial's senior vice-president, upstream. "Amii is not only a leader in the AI space globally, but based locally in Alberta. We believe the institute is a perfect partner to help us showcase Alberta's leadership in technology and digital solutions for responsibly-produced oil and gas."

The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) has launched Amii Innovates, a program aimed to guides teams and businesses in AI adoption. Amii Innovates is one of four program areas within Amii, and works closely with Alberta-based businesses to grow their internal AI capabilities. The organization's Innovation Affiliates were selected based on their readiness for machine intelligence adoption and potential for commercial success. Amii said it has worked collaboratively with these 24 companies over the past year, four of which have already become alumni. "We strongly believe that machine intelligence will be the primary driver of sustainable growth for Alberta's economy."

On Wednesday, the Alberta government announced a $100 million investment, over a period of five years, to attract more artificial intelligence-based high-tech companies to Alberta. The five-year plan will support both Alberta Innovates and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) to leverage partnerships with Alberta's research universities, while also creating jobs. In addition, Alberta will undertake a significant campaign to market Alberta's tech talent to the world in order to attract new investment. Since 2002, Alberta has invested $42 million in AI research at the University of Alberta and Amii. "Businesses around the world are turning to machine learning and artificial intelligence as key drivers of innovation across every industry sector."

The provincial government is putting $100 million toward a five-year plan to entice high-tech companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) to invest in Alberta. The province believes the funding will net 5,600 high-skill jobs, more than 100 new companies and dozens of new multi-national offices and labs in the province, Premier Rachel Notley said Wednesday at an announcement in Calgary. "High tech is the future and we making it happen right here in Alberta," she said. An initial investment of $27 million in the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) will see the non-profit set up a new program to support companies looking to build up their in-house AI capacity. The provincial funding, combined with $25 million from Ottawa, will also allow the Edmonton-based Amii to establish a new Calgary office, a release said.