Are you overwhelmed or worried by the spectacular progress in artificial intelligence? Our great opportunity: we have experts in Quebec who have mastered this technology and are vigilant with regard to it. Including two rising stars in this ecosystem: Sasha Luccioni and Ravy Por.
A word of advice: if you meet Sasha Luccioni, don’t talk to her about ChatGPT or the danger of killer robots controlled by artificial intelligence.
“I find that these days, there is a lot of emphasis on superfluous technologies that make us dream or scare us, while on the other hand, there are lots of beautiful things, good research that is being done in artificial intelligence (AI), but which go unnoticed,” she says.
Sasha Luccioni is the “climate manager” of Hugging Face, a Franco-American company specializing in AI. She works on the social and environmental impacts of this technology.
In an interview, she cites a series of examples that are not usually mentioned. She talks to me, among other things, about the role played by AI when we post a letter, when we use Google Maps or automatic translation tools.
Ravy Por, partner in artificial intelligence and data at Deloitte, agrees.
“There are lots of good things happening, but is there going to be as much media space [que pour les mauvais côtés de cette technologie] ? No ! “, she says.
When, in the context of her work, she talks about artificial intelligence, she says she gives concrete and positive examples.
I approach it in different ways. On the health side, it’s all about imaging recognition. We are able to recognize certain types of diseases more easily thanks to AI.
Ravy Por, partner in artificial intelligence and data at Deloitte
These inspiring women both have a keen understanding of the workings of artificial intelligence. They talk about it in simple words, to allow us to better understand its consequences, knowing that fear is a very bad advisor.
I met these two experts at The Press within 48 hours at the start of the month. Following these interviews, I had three words in mind: determination, pragmatism and lucidity.
“Someone asked me yesterday: ‘What do you want people to remember about you?’ I said that I don’t want them to remember me, but that I want to have as a legacy an educational program in AI for our young people, and also help with digital transformation in artificial intelligence for organizations and citizens,” Ravy Por, who founded the NPO Héros de chez nous in 2018, told me, which seeks to democratize technological education among young people.
Sasha Luccioni’s goals are relatively similar.
“Above all, I try to do a lot of popularization and communication,” she says. I don’t think there’s enough of that. »
We often have a speech that is scary, a little negative, and I try to be rather constructive. AI has really come out of the laboratory and is part of everyday life, I think it’s super important that people understand how it works.
Sasha Luccioni, “climate manager” at Hugging Face
Exercising your influence
On the other hand, they both maintain their critical spirit and demonstrate vigilance regarding current and potential abuses. They are both very aware that the development of AI must be supervised and do not hesitate to use their capacity to influence, in this area, for positive purposes.
More than two years ago, Radio-Canada had already shined the spotlight on the fight led by Ravy Por against the biases of the algorithms used by artificial intelligence.
“I always say it depends on the intention,” explains Ravy Por. Sometimes I use the example of a hammer. With a hammer I am able to build infrastructure, but the hammer can hurt someone. »
Sasha Luccioni, for her part, recently found herself in the magazine’s ranking of 35 innovators under 35 MIT Technological Review. At the same time, she has just given a TED conference to plead the urgency of “focusing on the current negative impacts” of AI, “such as carbon emissions, violated copyrights and the dissemination of biased information”.
It’s not just the actions made by these two women that are inspiring. Their respective journeys are also remarkable.
“When I was 9 years old, I wanted to be a mathematician, because when I was little, I spoke neither French nor English and the only language I understood at school was the universal language of math,” recalls Ravy Por, born in Quebec to parents who fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
She also wanted to become a philanthropist, she says.
For someone who completed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Montreal and volunteers in several organizations, it’s mission accomplished.
Sasha Luccioni, whose parents left Ukraine for Ontario when she was 4 years old, for her part chose to settle in Montreal in her early twenties.
Holder of a doctorate in cognitive computing from UQAM, she was concerned about climate change and the fate of the planet.
After getting involved at the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute with Yoshua Bengio, she found her current job, which allows her to focus on the environmental cost of AI.
From now on, she is also trying to share her knowledge in artificial intelligence with Espace pour la vie (which brings together the Botanical Garden, the Insectarium, etc.).
“I want to build things in Montreal. I have chosen my city, I want to put down roots there and I find that Space for Life is a huge advantage [pour la ville]. I want to give back to the community. »
Who is Sasha Luccioni?
Born in 1990 in Ukraine, Sasha Luccioni has lived in Montreal since the age of 21.
She completed a doctorate in cognitive computing in 2016 at UQAM.
His models? “I come from a long tradition of women in science. My mother is in statistics-mathematics, my grandmother was a chemist, my great-grandmother was a geologist. It’s a culture of women doing research that inspires me a lot. »
Who is Ravy Por?
Born in 1985 in Quebec to parents from Cambodia.
Ravy Por notably has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Montreal and is currently doing a part-time master’s degree in industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montréal.
His models? His father and his mother. “What they went through, whether it was the genocide in Cambodia, arriving in a new country in winter without speaking French or English, getting by, helping people in the community, helping their families in Cambodia… I tell myself that I I wish I were as resilient and humble as my parents. »