- Donation supports the creation of BMO Lab for Creative Research
in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI
- First university lab dedicated to bringing together students
from theatre, music, visual arts, computer science, and engineering
to explore AI
- This training will equip students for the workforce of the
future, supporting the ability to collaborate across disciplines at
the conjunction of technological development and human values
TORONTO, Oct. 7, 2019 /CNW/ - BMO Financial Group
(TSX:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) today announced a donation of $5 million to support the University of Toronto's efforts to combine its
world-renowned strength in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research
and its globally recognized excellence in the arts and humanities.
The donation – the largest ever from BMO to a post-secondary
educational institution in Canada
– is part of the bank's long-standing support for education,
innovation, and helping ensure individuals are prepared for the
future of work.
The donation will support the creation of the BMO Lab for
Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies
and AI within the University of
Toronto's Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance
Studies. The Lab will be the first in the world to engage
international artists, researchers, scientists, and students in
transdisciplinary collaborative research on AI as a means for
creative, human expression. Students from across the arts,
humanities, sciences, and engineering will explore the creative
possibilities that AI and other technologies have to offer.
"With the advance of machine learning over the past 15 years, AI
applications are rapidly changing how we work, create and live,"
said Professor Meric Gertler,
President, University of Toronto.
"Thanks to this visionary gift from BMO Financial Group, the BMO
lab will bring together researchers and students from across the
university to explore the potential for human expression in AI and
other advanced technologies. At the same time, it will empower a
new generation of young leaders with the ability to apply this
technology to solve problems and address new challenges."
In the coming decade, businesses will be faced with
unprecedented opportunities and challenges, with changing workforce
demographics, the disruption of traditional business models, and
rapid technology shifts.
Grounded in the Arts, the BMO Lab is focussed on emerging
technologies, including artificial intelligence, and recognizes
theatre as a point of entry to a foundational inquiry of human
experience in the rapidly changing world. All the activities in the
Lab are firmly placed in human, social, and cultural space,
committed to engagement with the broader public, and addressing the
growing complexities of the lived world.
"Our partnership to launch the BMO Lab represents a unique
convergence of technology and the humanities, providing
opportunities for students to research AI and shift the paradigm of
creativity," said Darryl White,
Chief Executive Officer, BMO Financial Group. "To strengthen
competitiveness, companies must harness the full power and
potential of technologies responsibly, while developing talent for
the future – including investing in employee training and
upskilling. At BMO, we're seeing tremendous benefits from the
integration of AI, freeing up capacity for employees to engage in
valuable insight-driven work and creating benefits for customers
such as significantly reducing time to open business accounts."
Through its work, the BMO Lab will engage the broader public in
high-profile artistic events, and create a new, global network of
artists and researchers working at the intersection of art and
technology.
"Ensuring that our culture remains centred around human values
while benefiting from the possibilities of technologies such as AI
will require an unprecedented degree of inter-disciplinary
creativity," said David Rokeby,
inaugural Director of the Lab. "The uniqueness of the BMO
Lab is that it is grounded in theatre, with a focus on human
minds and bodies expressing ideas and emotions in real time and
space. This will provide students a context in which to learn to
work effectively with people of very different disciplines in a
creative, collaborative, and challenging learning environment."
BMO has been at the forefront of corporate learning initiatives,
investing more than $78 Million
annually for employee training and earning several international
awards – including the Association for Talent Development 2019 BEST
Award. Earlier this year the bank launched the BMO Forward learning
program, to equip employees with digital skills in areas like data
science, AI, analytics, cybersecurity, and digi-tech.
About BMO Financial Group
Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly
diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by
assets, in North America. With
total assets of $839 billion as of
July 31, 2019, and a team of diverse
and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of
personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment
banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and
conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and
Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital
Markets.
About University of
Toronto
Founded in 1827, the University of Toronto has evolved into Canada's leading institution of learning,
discovery and knowledge creation. We are proud to be one of the
world's top research-intensive universities, driven to invent and
innovate. Our students have the opportunity to learn from and work
with preeminent thought leaders through our multidisciplinary
network of teaching and research faculty, alumni and partners. The
ideas, innovations and actions of more than 590,000 graduates
continue to have a positive impact on the world.
SOURCE BMO Financial Group