The Artificial Intelligence Network of British Columbia launched in 2019 to “unify, organize, and catalyze the AI and Machine Learning communities in British Columbia.”
The institution’s founding vision was to make B.C. a worldwide hub for Artificial Intelligence by 2022.
Did it happen? If not quite yet, the province is surely close.
Given the recent permeation of AI throughout BC, Techcouver has highlighted some regional upstarts leveraging the increasingly popular technology.
Scaling AI
Earlier this year, SCALE AI announced a combined $50 million being invested across 12 projects in Canada, including multiple in BC.
Based in Montreal, the federally and provincially funded SCALE AI works with industry partners and research institutes to financially support companies that implement real-world applications of AI and facilitate the development of a skilled workforce.
Many of the projects are aimed at the supply chain, which has been battered in recent years and stands to be significantly optimized through further advances in technology. BC-based Save-On-Foods—which is working with Burnaby’s D-Wave Systems, White Box Analytics, and more to improve logistics—is one example.
“The AI project supports our efforts to improve the supply chain and ensure we have the right products at the right time for our customer,” stated Chris Allen, Vice-President Information Technology for Save-On-Foods.
Another example is Toronto’s Flybits collaborating with TD Bank Group, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Vancouver’s own Mimik Technology to develop a data ecosystem and a predictive solution to help businesses overcome current and future supply chain disruptions and crises. The project received $2 million from SCALE AI.
“One major challenge in the use of data and AI to help forge effective and sustainable business relationships lies in the availability, mobility, and effective use of privacy-preserved data,” noted Hossein Rahnama, who founded Flybits in 2013. “This solution can prove especially beneficial for companies active in supply chain and logistics, which maintain a myriad of interdependent supplier, vendor, and client relationships.”
Canada Drives, a Vancouver-based marketplace for buying and selling cars online, is working on another project. To provide value and convenience, Canada Drives must predict market prices and reconditioning costs to provide accurate prices to sellers and buyers.
Charli Automates Enterprise
Charli AI says its generative artificial intelligence platform Ancaeus is designed for cross-functional use across an enterprise that can discover, understand, and use facts extracted from millions of pieces of content to generate insights, spreadsheets, presentations and natural language reports—performing without dread some of the most tedious administrative tasks out there.
Founder Kevin Collins says he has watched companies spend billions of dollars on “narrowly focused AI solutions with limited and siloed success.”
“Traditional AI deployments require an enormous amount of data, an army of highly skilled staff to implement, and have prohibitive ongoing maintenance costs as the data gets stale and models need to be retrained and redeployed,” the entrepreneur explains. “Our Ancaeus platform is changing that reality with an unmatched set of AI capabilities that are fully productized, ready to deploy, delivering day-one value, and handling diverse sets of data dynamically.”
Built with AI at its core, Charli AI’s platform includes a sophisticated “network of ensembles” that are orchestrated to perform advanced tasks “out of the box,” eliminating training required for bespoke machine learning models.
According to Collins, Ancaeus customers can see 70% cost savings, which he believes is “unprecedented” for the industry.
“It’s an industry game changer,” Collins affirms.
Founded in 2018, Charli AI is the latest venture from the team behind Bit Stew Systems, an industrial internet-of-things startup acquired by GE Digital in 2016 for $208 million.
Intelligence for the Impaired
There are more than 200 million visually impaired people worldwide. Seleste is working on thin and affordable smart glasses that closely resemble conventional frames and lenses but use artificial intelligence amongst other technology to empower the blind.
“Our mission is to give visually impaired people affordable access to technology that can give them back their freedom and independence,” the BC company states. “Using cutting-edge A.I and video-calling features, our thin smart glasses have been designed and tested to meet your needs.”
Features include Call a Friend, which grants someone remote the ability to see through the glass camera what the blind person is looking at. Without a person on hand, AI can still navigate the world with scene description, as well as identify objects with recognition functionality, and also read out text—from small newsprint to giant billboards.
“We truly believe smart glasses are the future of personal computing and want to use technology to make a positive impact and help an often overlooked group of people,” the startup states. “We’re pushing the boundaries of wearable technology while helping change lives.”
The Glasses are equipped with a mic, auto-focus camera, and bone conduction headphones for audio experience while maintaining privacy without blocking ears so users can remain aware of surroundings.
To continue advancing the intelligence behind its product, the Canadian company is seeking volunteers to help individuals with vision loss through the video calling feature on the Seleste app.
Building Durability
Late last year, a serial entrepreneur and designer co-launched a startup in Vancouver that leverages artificial intelligence to help users create and manage their own business.
Durable is the brainchild of Vancouverites Ross Howard-Jones, James Clift, and Helio Bentes—and it claims to launch a business in less than a minute using AI.
Durable offers different products covering different aspects of the business, such as Website Builder, Invoicing, and CRM. It means the startup competes with a lot of different tech rivals who are more specialized in their offerings—but the all-in-one aspect is appealing these days.
“When you’re starting a business, the first step towards your first customer is going online to market your business,” notes Clift. “That step is now automated.”
One year in, Durable has raised more than US$6 million in capital across a pre-seed and seed round.
The company envisions a future with more small businesses—a world “where everyone can become an owner.”
“Whether it’s a side hustle or a full-time gig, we believe that owning a business can change everyone’s life,” Durable affirms.
So far, more than 25,000 websites have been built through the startup’s platform. Clift says he’d like that figure to be 100,000, then a million.
“We’re building this business to last, and want to help you do the same,” states the company.
AI Laboratory
Astera Labs this year expanded North from Silicon Valley.
The Santa Clara company, known for purpose-built data and memory connectivity solutions that remove performance bottlenecks in data centres, announced in September the grand opening of Astera Labs Vancouver.
Astera Labs Vancouver is a “new office and state-of-the-art lab to support the company’s development of cutting-edge interconnect technologies for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning architectures,” according to a statement from the California-based pioneer in connectivity solutions for intelligent and accelerated systems.
The new location will “tap into the region’s rich technology talent base to drive product development, customer support, and marketing,” the company stated.
“This new office … will accelerate our vision to enable the true potential of AI and Machine Learning in the cloud with our purpose-built intelligent connectivity solutions,” Astera’s chief business officer, Sanjay Gajendra, stated at the time.
The new Astera Labs Vancouver office increases the company’s operations in Canada, which includes a Research and Development Design Centre in Toronto.
Leave a Reply