Cofounder, Vector Institute
Search every verified Tomi Poutanen interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Tomi Poutanen, co-founder of the Vector Institute and CEO of Signal 1 AI, discussed the evolution of machine learning from academic research to real-world applications in a May 2023 talk. He described his career trajectory from founding technology companies to co-founding Layer 6, which was acquired by TD Bank Group, where he served as Chief AI Officer. Poutanen recounted efforts to build Canada's AI ecosystem, including pitching the Vector Institute to the provincial government and University of Toronto, and noted that the country's tech economy was historically weak, with startups often relocating to the U.S. after acquisition. He highlighted his current work at Signal 1, which applies AI to healthcare, mentioning a model for real-time risk prediction in hospital patients that he said is "saving lives." In earlier appearances, Poutanen addressed topics such as selecting machine learning projects for commercial use, the importance of data harvesting for training models, and the potential socio-economic impact of AI. He described suitable ML use cases as production systems that improve over time, and contrasted his team's approach at TD with the work of 1,800 data scientists building traditional models like credit scoring. He also discussed the competitive positioning of AI, stating that jurisdictions leading in AI could see GDP growth, and emphasized the role of researchers like Geoff Hinton in attracting talent to Canada. Poutanen noted that recommendation systems often underuse available data, and that deep learning can leverage broader customer and product insights.
Inovia Partner & CTO Steve Woods sits down with Tomi Poutanen (Co-Founder & CEO, Signal1), Marc McCoy (Computational Geneticist, SickKids), and Isaac Souweine (Partner, Venture Scientist Fund) to explore how Canada's world-class AI research talent can be turned into enduring, category-defining companies, and how to ensure Canada captures the economic value it creates. Learn more at inovia.vc
Speaker: Tomi Poutanen, Co-Founder & CEO, Signal 1 AI Tomi is a co-founder and CEO of Signal 1, a company set out to transform healthcare with AI. Previously, Tomi co-founded Layer 6 which was acquired in 2018 by TD Bank Group, where he served as SVP and Chief AI Officer. Prior to Layer 6, Tomi founded three technology companies with exits to Microsoft and Yahoo!. Tomi is a co-founder of the Vector Institute, a world leading academic research institute for deep learning, and a co–founder and Partner of Radical Ventures, a leading AI-focused venture fund. He is a founding fellow at the Creativ…
A talk from the Toronto Machine Learning Summit: https://torontomachinelearning.com/ The video is hosted by https://towardsdatascience.com/ About the speakers: Trishala Pillai: Partnerships Lead of Voice + AI Channel Partners @ Myplanet Simona Gandrabur: Sr. Director, AI Lead at the National Bank of Canada, Wealth Division Ofer Shai: Chief AI Officer in Omnia AI Tomi Poutanen: Chief AI Officer at TD About: Choosing which AI projects to invest in can be a daunting task. How do Layer6’s capabilities fit within TD bank? How does ML research get rolled into products at National Bank of Can…
... note one of the founding members of the vector Institute which is this hugely important ecosystem we've created here in Toronto.
A discussion on the latest ways to use AI from the 2016 Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence Conference in Toronto.
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