Artificial intelligence has been the stuff of mad dreams, and sometimes nightmares, throughout our collective history. We've come a long way from a 15th-century automaton knight crafted by Leonardo da Vinci. Within the past century, artificial intelligence has inched itself further into our realities and day to day lives and there is now no doubt we're entering into a new age of intelligence. Early computing technology ushered in a new branch of computer science dealing with the simulated intelligence of machines. In recent history, we've used A.I. for common tasks, such as playing against the computer in chess matches and other gameplay behaviors.

Ask any expert about artificial intelligence and they'll tell you it's going to radically change the world. Ask them for specifics on how and they'll probably start fighting. Leading researchers in the field can't agree if smart machines are an apocalyptic threat to humanity or the key to a blissful, leisure-filled future. Will robots steal most of our jobs driving vicious inequality, or will the dirty and boring jobs of today just be replaced by new, better ones? With some of the country's biggest brains battling over the issue, do the rest of us non-experts have any hope of wrapping our heads around the capabilities of one of the most important technologies transforming our lives?

Artificial intelligence has been the stuff of mad dreams, and sometimes nightmares, throughout our collective history. We've come a long way from a 15th century automaton knight crafted by Leonardo da Vinci. Within the past century, artificial intelligence has inched itself further into our realities and day to day lives and there is now no doubt we're entering into a new age of intelligence. Early computing technology ushered in a new branch of computer science dealing with the simulated intelligence of machines. In recent history, we've used AI for common tasks, such as playing against the computer in chess matches and other game play behaviors.

Canada has a rich history of research into artificial intelligence, going back over 40 years. Regarding "AI is the future, and Canada must seize it," originally appearing in the Globe and Mail Report on Business on January 7, 2017. Canada has a rich history of research into artificial intelligence (AI), going back over 40 years. Globally, we punch well above our weight. For example, in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Computer Science Rankings site places the University of Alberta third, the University of Toronto seventh, and includes three other Canadian universities in the top 50. Two of machine learning areas that are generating the most excitement today, deep learning (Geoffrey Hinton) and reinforcement learning (Richard Sutton), were pioneered by Canadian academics.