Edify

1 month ago | edifyedmonton.com | Cory Schachtel

Scott Stinchcombe was 12 when his dad brought home a pinball machine, and his life was never the same. The game was Freedom, a 1976 machine Stinchcombe spent countless hours playing — and fixing — with his dad. It opened Stinchcombe to a whole new community, and a current collection of 50 more machines, both of which he enjoys as much as those first days with his dad.

2 months ago | edifyedmonton.com | Cory Schachtel

In 2018, we featured the University of Alberta’s, world-renowned AI research group, led by research scientist Richard Sutton, who left us with this quote about the distinction between human and “artificial” intelligence. For our own benefit, he said, “There shouldn’t even be a distinction, it should just be one topic: the science of mind, whether artificial or natural.

2 months ago | edifyedmonton.com | Omar Mouallem

wâsikan kisewâtisiwin, an AI app designed to correct anti-Indigenous bias in writing, raises many technological and ethical questions — but the first one Shani Gwin usually answers is, “How do you pronounce it?”“Wuh-see-gahn key-su-wat-su-win,” she says. I repeat it back in one smooth utterance, earning a figurative gold star from Gwin. “I’m practically a native speaker,” I quip — then instantly regret the unintended double entendre.

2 months ago | edifyedmonton.com | Cory Schachtel

Brett and Brittany Finnie have lived in Highlands since 2013, after buying a 1922 fixer-upper filled with floral wallpaper and yellowed linoleum. They were immediately charmed by the neighbourhood and especially a century-old house two doors down, despite it being significantly smaller and a little run-down. In fact, that’s what appealed to the Finnies — a designer-realtor duo specializing in old-home restorations.

2 months ago | edifyedmonton.com | Cory Schachtel

Tiny handwritten notes, strategically placed smartphones, or the classic-but-high-risk peeking over a classmate’s shoulder — for as long as teachers have tested students, students have found ways to cheat. Artificial intelligence is, in some ways, yet another new temptation. But it has also prompted a much bigger discussion — one that school-teacher-turned-technologist Jill Kowalchuk has been having with Alberta teachers for a very long time.