- India's capital bans fireworks to curb air pollution
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- FIFA to open 'global dialogue' on transfer system after Diarra ruling
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Starmer vows to cut red tape as he urges foreign investors to 'back' UK
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- 'Not viable': Barcelona turns against surging tourism
- Hezbollah says targeted Israeli naval base after deadly drone strike
- Rice praises 'unbelievable' England interim boss Carsley despite uncertainty
- Nepali teenager hailed as hero after climbing world's 8,000m peaks
- England captain Stokes back from injury for second Pakistan Test
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- South Korea military says 'fully ready' as drone flights anger North
- Pakistan 'vigilantes' behind rise in online blasphemy cases
- Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune
- Smith experiment as Test opener over, Green out of India series
- With inflation down, ECB eyes faster tempo of rate cuts
- Is life possible on a Jupiter moon? NASA goes to investigate
- Dodgers crush Mets 9-0 in MLB playoff series opener
- South Korea military says 'fully ready' as drone tensions soar
- Cummins back, Marsh and Head out of Pakistan ODI series
- Shanghai stocks swing after stimulus briefing as most of Asia rises
- New Zealand's Latham promises 'no fear' as he takes charge for India Tests
- Kyrgios vows to 'shut up' doubters with December comeback
- Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
Montreal research hub spearheads global AI ethics debate
Rapid developments in artificial intelligence -- and recent turmoil at industry powerhouse OpenAI -- have brought fresh attention to a key hub of ethics research related to the technology in Montreal, led by Canadian "godfather of AI" Yoshua Bengio.
Bengio -- who in 2018 shared with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun the Turing Award for their work on deep learning -- says he is worried about the technology leapfrogging human intelligence and capabilities in the not-too-distant future.
Speaking to AFP at his home in Montreal, the professor warned that AI developments are moving at breakneck speed and risked "creating a new species capable of making decisions that harm or even endanger humans."
OpenAI's recent dismissal and then rehiring a few days later of chief executive Sam Altman -- who has been accused of downplaying risks in his push to advance its ChatGPT bot -- illustrates some of the turmoil in the startup sector and fierce competition in the race to commercialize generative AI.
For some time, Bengio has been warning about companies moving too fast without guardrails, "potentially at the public's expense."
It is essential, he said, to have "rules that'll be followed by all companies."
At a world-first AI summit in Britain in early November, Bengio was tasked with leading a team producing an inaugural report on AI safety.
The aim is to set priorities to inform future work on the security of the cutting-edge technology.
- Society and AI -
The renowned AI academic has brought together a "critical mass of AI researchers" (1,000+) through his Mila research institute, located in a former working-class neighborhood of Montreal.
His neighbors include AI research facilities of American tech giants Microsoft, Meta, IBM and Google.
"This concentration of experts in artificial intelligence, which is greater than anywhere else in the world," is what attracted Google, says Hugo Larochelle, the hoodie-wearing scientific director of the Silicon Valley giant's AI subsidiary Deepmind.
Early on, these researchers began thinking about the future of AI, and consultations with the public and researchers from all disciplines led in 2018 to a global AI charter called the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence.
"We knew early on that the scientific community needed to think about the integration of AI into society," explained Guillaume Macaux, vice-president of OBVIA, an international observatory studying the social impacts of AI.
Its 220 researchers advise government policies and raise public awareness of the possible positive effects and negative impacts of this cutting-edge technology.
- Art 'demystifying AI' -
Artists too are playing a part in "demystifying AI," says Sandra Rodriguez, who splits her time making art in Montreal and teaching digital media at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
She showed off to AFP her latest art installation.
Entering a breathtaking futuristic world via a virtual reality (VR) headset, the public is able to converse with a bot inspired by American linguist Noam Chomsky.
Voice and text answers to queries appear simultaneously. With the touch of a finger, lists of alternative responses considered by the AI with their associated percentage gradient pop up.
"You quickly realize that it's actually just an algorithm," said Rodriguez.
"Montreal is a fantastic playground" for exploring the potential and limits of artificial intelligence, as well as "debating (related) ethical and societal issues," she told AFP.
According to Rodriguez, art becomes "necessary more than ever" to invite "a wider public to ask questions about the issues of artificial intelligence which will affect them tomorrow."
P.Costa--AMWN