Focus Montreal introduces Montrealers to the people who are shaping our community by bringing their stories into focus.
The program airs on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. as well as Sunday at 7:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and midnight.
Take a look at who we’re meeting this week.
Dawson College introduces AI into curriculum
Artificial intelligence is the future — and it will change the way we work.
Dawson College is facing the new reality head on by introducing artificial intelligence into its curriculum.
READ MORE: Dawson College adds artificial intelligence to educational curriculum
Dawson students will soon be able to learn about AI. Industry leaders want to make sure students are aware of the positive and negative impacts of new technologies.
“It’s a grassroots movement,” said Joel Trudeau from the Dawson AI initiative. “It’s not only about the students, its also about preparing faculty for these new realities.”
Global’s Elysia Bryan-Baynes has more with Trudeau, Pereira and Sameer Bhatnagar from the school’s initiative.
Social media tracking user behaviour
While the omnipresence of social media continues to grow, experts are examining what it means for privacy and democracy.
Users are getting profiled, then targeted by ads according to their profile, said communications expert Nellie Brière.
Brière explains how if someone makes social media aware that they got married and bought a house, social media data will predict that that person might also soon start a family, so they will become the target of baby ads.
Global’s Bryan-Baynes has more with Brière about social media’s data collection.
READ MORE: If you die in real life, do you also die on social media?
Montreal polyglot who speaks 19 languages
Being bilingual or trilingual in Montreal is a cultural norm. Speaking 19 languages, however, is not.
Montreal polyglot Georges Awaad’s love of words runs so deep that he speaks 19 languages.
Awaad’s mother tongue is French. He then learned Arabic from his Egyptian and Lebanese family. Awaad then picked up his third language, English, in school. The 20-year-old then began learning 16 other languages through his multicultural friends and social circles.
READ MORE: Language barrier causes St. Mary’s Hospital to allegedly refuse services to elderly patient
Learning different grammar and sound patterns are a part of what Awaad finds interesting about language, he said.
“You can put yourself in other people’s skin much more easily when you speak their language,” said Awaad. “It has brought me a broader awareness of what’s going on in the world.”
Global’s Bryan-Baynes has more with Awaad on his love for languages.
WATCH: International lawmakers discuss how to keep tech giants in check