NBIF’s Artificial Intelligence Fund Gets Support From Ottawa
FREDERICTON – A new artificial intelligence (AI) fund launched by The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation will help New Brunswick businesses better collaborate with academic researchers on AI initiatives.
NBIF announced a suite of programs earlier this month devoted to accelerating AI applied research in the province with a goal of providing access to AI expertise, talent, and research for companies in Atlantic Canada.
The total investment of $3.2-million in artificial intelligence will help industry partners progress through phases of AI maturity while accelerating ongoing applied AI research programs.
That investment also includes plans to better engage industry in AI research through events and sharing success stories, while delivering a host of targeted applied research programs.
NBIF itself is investing over $1.3-million in the project, while also leveraging an additional $850,000 from industry and research partners.
ACOA will provide a non-repayable contribution of just over $996,000 through the federal government’s Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program.
The REGI program helps support projects that promote sustainable community economic development, enhance business development and facilitate innovation.
“This fund will accelerate the creation and adoption of artificial intelligence solutions for companies through strategic partnerships with New Brunswick research experts in our academic and research institutions,” said NBIF CEO Jeff White in a released statement.
White said it will also support the training and development of experts who will be critical to delivering AI solutions to industry.
The fund specifically targets NB-based researchers working in AI, along with members of industry interested in implementing AI solutions.
Companies increasingly adopting AI to solve problems
The past decade has been a pivotal one for the artificial intelligence industry, with 2020 data showing AI substantially increasing its impact on the world despite the chaos brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was just one of the findings from The 2021 AI Index, an annual study of AI impact and progress developed by a team at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, which noted AI investment in drug design and discovery increased significantly.
In another takeaway, the index described a shift of 65% of graduating North American PhDs in AI going into careers in industry in 2019 — that’s up from 44.4% heading into industry related fields in 2010, helping to highlight the greater role industry is playing in AI development.
NBIF defines Artificial Intelligence as “the constellation of technologies that work together to enable machines to sense, comprehend, act, and learn with human-like intelligence.” That can include machine learning, neural networks, and other related technologies.
While NBIF states the AI Fund focuses on applied AI development projects and their deployment to industry, things like theoretical studies on artificial intelligence will not be supported.
Instead, NBIF states it will consider, “research that looks for applications of AI algorithms and techniques outside of academia and helps private sector users deploy these applications.”
A large portion of NBIF’s targeted investment through the fund will go toward Increasing AI expertise available through a strategic acceleration initiative designed to train students to fill talent needs at companies already looking to implement AI solutions.
According to NBIF, the fund also includes a pre-voucher up to a maximum of $20,000 which will help an industry partner explore a small project related to an AI application with an academic partner at no cost.
The pre-voucher is aimed at businesses uncertain about investing in AI and who need to see a demonstration before committing to a paid contract. NBIF hopes that exposure will help such hesitant companies see how AI can solve their problems.
To qualify, the project must centre around the use of applied AI to solve an industrial problem, with the potential to advance the industry partner’s problem definition through to at least a proof of concept within a nine-month time frame.
It states the desired outcome of the funding will be increased industry uptake of AI.
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].