Artificial Intelligence: Its $220,000 Machines Do the Work of Nearly Six People

The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is underway. Businesses and workers will be shaken up because of the implementation of AI, which will drastically change the way we produce and work. All sectors will be affected and some jobs will be transformed more quickly than others. For better or for worse? The newspaper interviewed players from the music, cinema, comedy, advertising, publishing, television and several other sectors.

A Quebec manufacturer of headphone membranes is able to sell its high-end product to global audio giants thanks to its two new $220,000 machines that do the work of nearly six people. And that’s just the beginning.

“We have a machine to measure the size of our membrane and another to inspect and package it,” he explains. Newspaper Felix Cournoyer, Director of Engineering and shareholder of ORA Graphene Audio Inc, which has developed graphene materials for acoustic transducers.

• Listen to the interview with Francis Halin, journalist for the Money section of the Journal de Montréal, via QUB:

With its first $70,000 machine and the other $150,000, the young company is easily able to export its niche product to headphone manufacturers, who are asking for more.

“It took us six to seven months per machine to get our return on investment, so they are already paid for at our growth rate,” summarizes Felix Cournoyer, responsible for implementing these traditional dome technologies for the speaker diaphragms.

At Newspaperhe explains that the fact that his machines do the work of six people does not mean that they are pushing employees out. On the contrary, these technologies have made his productivity explode by four or five, observes Felix Cournoyer. Ora is currently looking for a production technician, according to its website.

“We want to add a camera to the second machine to inspect cosmetic defects. It’s a much more difficult task, so fewer people will be needed to do the work,” continues the first employee of the company co-founded in 2017 by a doctor from McGill University.

“The company started in Quebec and is still here,” says the brains behind the firm of around forty employees.

“It made the difference between having to hire more people or being able to increase productivity with the same team,” he adds.

Signed Vention

It was the Quebec firm Vention that helped ORA Graphene Audio Inc. find the right artificial intelligence algorithms to refine its machines as much as possible.

Last October, The newspaper had told the story of its CEO, Étienne Lacroix, who has just obtained $20 million from the Fonds de solidarité FTQ to break into the $180 billion automation market.

“Our factory in downtown Montreal is above a Best Buy retailer. We send our membrane to China. Companies integrate it into their headphones, then it comes back to the store just below us,” smiles Felix Cournoyer d’Ora proudly.