SALTZMAN: Canadian AI impresses at VivaTech

PARIS — Artificial intelligence knows you’re not sure what to make of it, but it’s not going anywhere.

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As evidenced at Viva Technology 2024, Europe’s largest tech and startup event, AI is capable of so much more than merely helping students write better essays or create a three-day itinerary for touring Paris, France, where VivaTech took place this week.

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Instead, these powerful tech tools can spot liver disease, identify heaps of floating trash to remove from our oceans, and help smooth out shipping delays at ports — all examples of Canadian AI solutions on display at the event.

In fact, the Canadian pavilion with 60 companies drew big crowds on the convention showroom floor, which is expected to see about 150,000 attendees throughout the 4-day event.

Hosting roughly 3,500 exhibitors from 120 countries, the goal of VivaTech is to discover and decipher the latest tech trends for consumers and businesses, and connect startups, investors, and governments.

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“We’ve invested a lot over the past few years — into research, academics, and support for several Canadian AI startups — and we’re here to show our leadership and convert this innovation into meaningful business opportunities elsewhere,” said Isabelle Turcotte, Vice President of Ecosystem Relations at Scale AI, a Montreal-headquartered investment and innovation hub.

Scale AI, which works with more than 500 industry partners, research institutes, and other players in the field of AI, brought a 170-person Canadian delegation to VivaTech, including five technology journalists (such as yours truly, for full transparency).

“We understand there is concern over AI, but we’re looking to leverage this intelligence to bolster Canadian businesses, maximize their resources, build a thriving ecosystem, and help us live longer and healthier lives,” adds Turcotte.

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Yes, Elon Musk is one of those worried about unregulated and “politically correct” generative AI — at an obvious jab at OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini — as he reiterated during a virtual press event with reporters at VivaTech on Thursday afternoon.

(X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino spoke at VivaTech on Friday in person, plus Tesla’s Cybertruck was another star of the show.)

Musk’s own GrokAI chatbot will “try its best to be rigorous and pursue the truth … and be the funniest,” he said during Thursday’s Q&A. “If we are going to die, we might as well die laughing.”

Adopted outside of Canada, too

While some nations lag behind in the emerging AI economy, Canada has already started to export its expertise — beginning with France.

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Startup Airudi, for example has developed a human resources management system adopted by the port of Le Havre, while Videns, another Quebec AI company, is helping to optimize the planning process for constructing aircraft for Airbus (like the A330 and A350 models) in Toulouse.

“Canada is everywhere at VivaTech,” confirms Stephane Dion, Canada’s ambassador to France and Monaco and Special Envoy to the European Union and Europe, while addressing an audience at the Canadian pavilion.

“Canada has innovative companies, research and accelerators, and we are here to work within the French borders and around the world to make AI an incredible tool for progress,” adds Dion.

Other startups, like Waterloo, Ont.-based MappedIn, have tech used in multiple countries. MappedIn provides the indoor maps used by one-third of the world’s shopping malls, says Hongwei Liu, CEO of the company, while here at VivaTech to help shoppers navigate.

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Highlights from Canada’s AI scene

A few examples of Canadian-made AI at VivaTech 2024:

Oncoustics: “More than two billion people globally are living with (or at risk of) liver disease, and because it’s mostly asymptomatic until advanced stages, most people don’t know they’re living with it,” says Oncoustics CEO Beth Rogozinski. And so, the Toronto-based company leverages its OnX AI software to detect liver disease from ultrasounds, which can be performed with relatively inexpensive equipment by a technician within minutes, to differentiate healthy versus diseased tissues. Awaiting FDA approval in the U.S., this alternative to a biopsy may also be used for other organs, including kidneys, as well as potentially detect prostate, breast and thyroid diseases and cancers.

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Au-Zone: Pronounced “Ozone,” Calgary’s Au-Zone Technologies is used in industries like agriculture, oceanography, mining, and construction — fusing cameras, sensors and AI software — to enable real-time data collection and analysis. At VivaTech, company CEO Brad Scott discussed how its technology is used to spot floating plastics and other garbage in the ocean (and discerning it from other objects, like wildlife) before crews are dispatched to clean it up. For farms, Au-Zone’s AI is paired with robots to detect weeds (from good crops) to be removed.

MappedIn: The Ontario startup showed its Mappedin Maker, a free application tied to MappedIn’s indoor mapping platform, allowing anyone (without computer-aided design experience) to use their phone to map out commercial and community venues. Not only do these maps provide indoor navigation, but also bolsters public safety since these accurate digital blueprints can be sent to local emergency responders in the event of an emergency, such as a fire.

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Trusting Pixels: After meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vancouver’s Trusting Pixels CEO Alexander Jacquet sat down with Postmedia to chat about its image authentication technology, which allows organizations to detect retouched videos and photos. Used primarily to detect misleading advertising on social media platforms, its AI machine learning models can spot doctored images — such as making models look thinner, taller, or without facial blemishes — which could be difficult to spot to the naked eye. Trusting Pixels can be utilized by countries with strict laws against retouching people’s bodies in advertisements (especially in the U.K., Germany, France, and Israel).

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