Artificial intelligence to be hot topic at Collision tech conference in Toronto

As the Collision tech conference gets underway in Toronto, its chief executive expects much of the chatter at the event to focus on artificial intelligence.

Paddy Cosgrave says most of the annual event's top talks are delving into the technology and how blue-chip brands and startups are using it to advance their companies.

He says it's unusual for a single topic to dominate the event, a shift from last year when blockchain, cryptocurrencies and layoffs sparked discussions.

This year's Collision will see the so-called godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton hit the stage and feature talks from executives at Google's AI research venture DeepMind and the founders of Canadian AI startup Cohere.