One could easily mistake Upper Bound for a silent disco: A kaleidoscope of coloured lights coats roughly 6,000 people in hues as they sit or stand, all wearing headphones that are tuned to the changing lights as they consume panels, pitch contests, fireside chats, and news announcements.
Taproot was on the ground on May 20 at the Edmonton Convention Centre for Canada's largest AI-focused conference, thrown by the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, to gather further details about forthcoming data centres, an announcement from the ministry of technology and innovation, and a new hub at the University of Alberta.
Here's what we found:
1. Beacon wants water
Beacon AI Centers, which has a new CEO and plans to build six data centres in Alberta, was the focus of back-to-back sessions on the first day of Upper Bound. In the second of the two, Beacon co-founder Joseph Shovlin (who's from Ireland) said Beacon is working with Alberta municipalities where its planned data centres will be built to find "water strategies that work around them," rather than making demands for the water that centres need for cooling. Shovlin said this has created discussions on novel uses for wastewater and recycled water. Each municipality is different, he said, and water use will vary from place to place.
Shovlin also said Beacon plans to bring all its data centres in Alberta online around the same time, in 2027 or 2028. In the short-term, that means shoring up on infrastructure like transformers and fibre optic cable, so that the company doesn't experience supply chain delays once it's ready to come online.
2. New hub to use endowment to seed members
Taproot already reported on the launch of the University of Alberta's AI + Health Hub in the recent Tech Roundup and Health Innovation Roundup, but attended a celebration event at Enterprise Square all the same.
Speakers shared at the event that an endowment from the Henry Gusse Foundation will allow the new hub to provide two allotments of pre-seed funding to hub members annually for the next 10 years.
3. Alberta to compute its compute demand
Janak Alford, deputy minister of innovation and technology, announced an engagement portal to calculate Alberta's compute demand during one of the Beacon sessions on May 20. A spokesperson from Amii told Taproot the engagement will result in a white paper that will show the compute load needed for AI in the province.
Taproot asked for more details but as of May 22, neither the province, Alford, or Alford's minister, Nate Glubish, have shared information on the project.