Artificial intelligence to be hot topic at Collision tech conference in Toronto

TORONTO — As the Collision tech conference gets underway in Toronto, its chief executive expects much of the chatter at the event to focus on artificial intelligence.

Paddy Cosgrave says most of the annual event’s top talks are delving into the technology and how blue-chip brands and startups are using it to advance their companies.

He says it’s unusual for a single topic to dominate the event, a shift from last year when blockchain, cryptocurrencies and layoffs sparked discussions.

This year’s Collision will see the so-called godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton hit the stage and feature talks from executives at Google’s AI research venture DeepMind and the founders of Canadian AI startup Cohere.

Cosgrave anticipates Hinton, who recently left Google to speak more freely about AI, will share some of his concerns about the technology.

Collision expects about 40,000 people to visit the four-day conference at the Enercare Centre by the time it ends on Thursday evening. It will return to the city again in 2024, but has yet to announce a host location beyond that year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2023.