The Pulse: Sept. 26, 2023

An Edmonton-based pioneer in AI is partnering with a well-financed veteran of video-game development in a quest to develop artificial general intelligence by 2030.

Rich Sutton and John Carmack are working together to develop a "genuine AI prototype," they announced at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute on Sept. 25.

Unlike large language models like ChatGPT, which parrot information back in a human-like way, AGI is a form of artificial intelligence that learns the way humans learn, but has processing speed and capacity far beyond what humans can do.

"The elephant in the room is this is a small team and other companies have thousands of technical staff, and are spending billions of dollars on AGI. It's truly audacious of us to think that we can make, here, a contribution," Sutton said at the event. "It's audacious of us to think we can compete with them. And we think we can, or at least we can make a contribution."

While AGI has long been at the centre of Sutton's academic work, and the two said they will focus on learning rather than product development, Carmack also suggested he sees commercial possibilities.

"I am unashamedly a capitalist," he said. "I do think that this could make me a trillionaire, if everything goes well."

Carmack is a former video-game developer, rocket-ship builder, and the Meta employee who oversaw the Oculus Rift VR prototype. He later founded Keen Technologies and in August 2022, he raised US$20 million to pursue AGI.

• Boyle Street Community Services will relocate its services across four locations in central Edmonton after it moves out of its current building just north of Rogers Place on Sept. 30. The new locations will include Bissell East, at 105 Avenue and 96 Street, where the bulk of the agency's daily services will be offered. Four Directions Financial and Hiregood will be delivered out of temporary trailers on 101 Street and 107A Avenue, where the agency's new permanent facility, King Thunderbird Centre, will be located once construction is completed by the end of next year. Two community spaces will be offered at the Mercer Warehouse, and a smaller community space that can serve up to 20 people will operate out of Co*Lab. Boyle Street spokesman Elliott Tanti said the agency worked with the city to ensure each location was zoned appropriately.
• The Stollery Children's Hospital has opened a new mental health walk-in clinic and a new outpatient psychiatry clinic to help a growing number of children and youth with mental health concerns. The hospital has been seeing a growing demand for mental health services, in part due to the pandemic's effect on children, said Angela Bennett with the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation. A study from the Alberta Medical Association found that about 60% of parents reported at least one child experienced deteriorating mental health because of the pandemic.
• The Alberta government announced $12.4 million in funding for an additional 2,000 apprenticeships across the province to help meet the demand for skilled labourers, particularly in the construction industry. The funding is in addition to $15 million announced earlier this year, bringing the total funding for apprenticeship training in 2023-24 to $54.4 million. There are 47 apprenticeship education programs across Alberta.
• The Lebanese Burger Mafia, a documentary film exploring the history of fast food restaurant Burger Baron and the cultural contributions of the Lebanese and Arab community, played at the Calgary International Film Festival on Sept. 23. Edmonton-based filmmaker Omar Mouallem said he was inspired to investigate the burger chain's mysterious history in part because of a family connection, adding the documentary has been surprisingly successful, playing to sold-out audiences at film festivals across Canada. Mouallem said he hopes the film helps audiences "appreciate the cultural influence that immigrants, refugees, and foreign workers have had, not just in Alberta, but especially in rural Alberta."
• June 2023 had the highest number of drug poisoning deaths of any June on record. Alberta Substance Use Surveillance Data shows that 161 people died of drug poisoning in June, an increase of 39 deaths over June 2022. The total number of deaths in the first half of 2023 reached 990, compared to 894 during the same period in 2022. Provincial data also shows that the majority of opioid-poisoning deaths in the Edmonton Zone happened in the person's own home.
• The Alberta NDP launched its own survey to ask Albertans whether they want the provincial government to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and create a provincial pension plan in its place. NDP finance critic Shannon Phillips said the UCP government's online survey, which is open until Dec. 10, doesn't ask whether the public is in favour of leaving the CPP for an Alberta version. "We will ask the questions Albertans need to consider when determining the future of their retirement," Phillips said. Last week, the UCP released a long-awaited report from consultant LifeWorks that calculated the province should get $334 billion from the CPP's asset pool if it starts its own pension plan by 2027.

As absurd as it might seem that 90% of Edmonton's downtown surface parking lots lack permits, a 2009 court ruling might make it difficult for the city to pursue enforcement.

Based on a tip from a listener, Speaking Municipally dug up a case in which the Alberta Court of Appeal stymied the City of Edmonton's attempt to close down a lot that had no permit. The facts in that case don't necessarily apply to all unpermitted lots, but the case has been influential, Episode 234 of Taproot's civic affairs podcast found.

"It could make it maybe more tricky than we've been hearing about for the city to actually enforce these unpermitted surface lots downtown, depending on their history," co-host Mack Male said. "It uncovers a bit of complexity about this issue. It's maybe not quite as simple as, 'Hey, there's a surface lot without a permit — it should have a permit.'"

City council's urban planning committee heard on Sept. 19 that only 30 of the 275 surface parking lots downtown and in The Quarters have a current development permit. But administration recommended against increasing enforcement. "Forcing the closure of parking lots is unlikely to compel a landowner to develop a lot," the report said. "If surface parking lots are closed, it creates vacant land, which could then be subjected to social disorder."

Coun. Ashley Salvador, who does not sit on the committee, countered in a blog post that enforcing permit acquisition is about more than following due process: the city considers lots without a permit to be vacant, which means they aren't held to the same drainage and accessibility standards as others.

The committee decided to ask administration for options to deal with non-compliant surface parking lots. The report is due in the first quarter of 2024.

Hear more from Male and co-host Troy Pavlek about the city's permit pickle on the Sept. 22 episode, which also examines the Complete Streets Standard, concerns about transit funding, and a change of heart on the Villeneuve Airport Area. Listen for a chance to win tickets to Edmonton Design Week, too.