U.S.-based artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI have rolled out a robot hand that can take and solve a Rubik's Cube. Joshua Gans is a professor of Strategic Management at the Rotman School of Management and the chief economist at the Creative Destruction Lab. Tiff Macklem is dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Last week, the U.S.-based artificial intelligence research organization, OpenAI, rolled out a robot hand that can take and solve a Rubik's Cube. Creating a robot with visual sense and complex touch and dexterity is an impressive achievement in AI.

Researchers and entrepreneurs from the University of Toronto are set to showcase their innovative work to a global audience during Elevate 2019, Canada's largest technology and innovation festival. The week-long event, which kicks off Friday, features hundreds of speakers and is expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees. U of T will play a central role thanks to its contributions to Toronto's thriving technology ecosystem and research that underpins key advances in fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine. At this year's festival, U of T experts will be featured prominently at Elevate AI, a day-long program on Sept. 25 devoted to conversations around AI research, applications and commercialization held at the MaRS Discovery District. The scheduled speakers include Brendan Frey, the founder and CEO of Deep Genomics, which is using AI to build life-saving genetic therapies.

Researchers and entrepreneurs from the University of Toronto are set to showcase their innovative work to a global audience during Elevate 2019, Canada's largest technology and innovation festival. The week-long event, which kicks off Friday, features hundreds of speakers and is expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees. U of T will play a central role thanks to its contributions to Toronto's thriving technology ecosystem and research that underpins key advances in fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine. At this year's festival, U of T experts will be featured prominently at Elevate AI, a day-long program on Sept. 25 devoted to conversations around AI research, applications and commercialization held at the MaRS Discovery District. The scheduled speakers include Brendan Frey, the founder and CEO of Deep Genomics, which is using AI to build life-saving genetic therapies.

On October 23, 2018, Canadian tech leaders will gather at the Rotman School of Management's Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), located at the University of Toronto, for the fourth annual Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence conference. Since its inception, the conference has brought together top experts in AI to share and discuss the future of AI and its impact on the economy. During the 2016 conference, Shivon Zilis, Project Director, Office of the CEO at Tesla and Neuralink, previous Partner and continued supporter of Bloomberg Beta, and Founding Fellow of the CDL AI Stream and the CDL Quantum Machine Learning Stream, gave the conference attendees a detailed overview of the AI landscape in Canada. Canada has a unique data advantage and a healthy academic environment for bringing up the next generation of AI talent. It is clear that AI is critical to economic growth.

This 2018 book…on the timely topic of AI - tops my summer reading list. "This is a timely book, well written, and accessible putting forward their insights, and is well worth reading." Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot Professor, former president, Harvard University; former secretary, US Treasury; and former chief economist, World Bank-- "AI may transform your life. And Prediction Machines will transform your understanding of AI. This is the best book yet on what may be the best technology that has come along."

If someone were to provide you with an oracle to tell you the future, where would you use it first? A common answer is to predict moves in the stock market. The new revolution in artificial intelligence promises to hand everyone an oracle, whether for investing or another decision. No wonder that Wall Street is moving quickly to embrace AI and competing heavily for machine-learning talent that can produce the new oracles: There recently were 831 listings on LinkedIn for jobs at Goldman Sachs alone that required sophisticated computer-programming or data science skills. But just as Tesla's TSLA, 1.48% Elon Musk recently claimed that the use of robots in auto assembly had gone too far and that humans needed to be brought back, the same is likely true for AI on Wall Street and its disappearing trading jobs.

Rotman School of Management professor Ajay Agrawal explains how AI changes the cost of prediction and what this means for business. With so many perspectives on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) flooding the business press, it's becoming increasingly rare to find one that's truly original. So when strategy professor Ajay Agrawal shared his brilliantly simple view on AI, we stood up and took notice. Agrawal, who teaches at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and works with AI start-ups at the Creative Destruction Lab (which he founded), posits that AI serves a single, but potentially transformative, economic purpose: it significantly lowers the cost of prediction. In his new book, Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, coauthored with professors Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb, Agrawal explains how business leaders can use this premise to figure out the most valuable ways to apply AI in their organization.

While you were looking the other way, Toronto humbly produced some of the globe's top artificial intelligence and deep learning experts, companies, and innovations. Now is the time for the city to stand up tall and loudly proclaim what local folks already know: Toronto is at the center of AI innovation and its real-world applications. The city is home to world-class academic institutions like the University of Toronto and nearby to the University of Waterloo, both of which constantly churn out bright computer and data scientists, engineers, and developers building next-generation AI technologies. These institutions are world leaders in scientific research, creating an ecosystem ripe with opportunities for novel applications for AI, particularly in the fields of health and life sciences. My own company actively recruits staff from both schools.

"As the Institut d'entrepreneuriat Banque Nationale–HEC Montréal's early partner, it was natural for us to extend our support to CDL-Montreal, which brings together new businesses at the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence. Supported by a team of entrepreneurs, scientists and angel investors, these businesses will be in an exceptional development environment that promotes all types of innovation," says Louis Vachon, President and CEO of National Bank. "And supporting new tech companies like this provides abundant rewards in terms of knowledge development and social and economic vitality." This first group, dedicated to AI startups, launched in December 2017 and will continue its activities until June 2018. During this time the startups in the program will receive objectives-based coaching led by experienced entrepreneurs, representatives of major investment funds and world-class scientists, with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation.

While you were looking the other way, Toronto humbly produced some of the globe's top artificial intelligence and deep learning experts, companies, and innovations. Now is the time for the city to stand up tall and loudly proclaim what local folks already know: Toronto is at the center of AI innovation and its real-world applications. The city is home to world-class academic institutions like the University of Toronto and nearby to the University of Waterloo, both of which constantly churn out bright computer and data scientists, engineers, and developers building next-generation AI technologies. These institutions are world leaders in scientific research, creating an ecosystem ripe with opportunities for novel applications for AI, particularly in the fields of health and life sciences. My own company actively recruits staff from both schools.