James Slifierz is making the rounds of New York City investors as he prepares to move his startup -- Skywatch -- into the Communitech Data Hub in Waterloo. The facility at Erb and Albert streets, slated to open in mid-May, is Communitech's latest tech accelerator. It is for startups that are working with big data and its many applications in artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things. "I think it is an exciting opportunity," Slifierz says. He believes the Data Hub will be ideal for Skywatch, which is building an automated program that provides easy access to the enormous amounts of data collected by satellites. The technology is in private testing right now.

Artificial Lawyer caught up with Cian O'Sullivan, founder of Beagle, the automated contract analysis system that is just celebrating a year and a half of operations and landing VW as a client. We discussed how Beagle came about, why maybe sometimes it's better not to talk to lawyers about AI and how come the company has one of the world's largest auto companies as a client, and then some. Cian O'Sullivan's web camera is not working when Artificial Lawyer calls for a video conference and so is treated to a picture of a soccer pitch in Colombia that the legal tech company founder took on his travels. The international reference makes sense once you start to talk to O'Sullivan. The Canadian travels a lot.