Spring 2024

AI will soon be everywhere. Are we ready? Read how U of T researchers are working to ensure that this powerful – and increasingly ubiquitous – technology serves humanity’s best interests. Plus: how to halve carbon emissions from Toronto building construction, what comics bring to linguistics, the challenges of being pregnant and disabled and more.

Featured Posts

AI Everywhere

Before we know it, artificial intelligence will be all around us. Are we ready? Read More

Healing Power

Why AI could be good news for both patients and our health-care system Read More

Digitally illustrated collage of musical instruments, mobile phone screens and miniature sized musicians playing guitars. A hand is reaching through a mobile phone screen to press a key on the keyboard.

Tuning into Tomorrow

AI can help musicians compose and create new sounds. Is it just another music-making tool – or something else? Read More

Digital illustration of a taxi at an intersection, driving along an empty road, marked fare 4 ahead and 3 behind. The taxi is driving on a ribbon of a GPS map over bumper-to-bumper traffic on the other road, marked 2 on one side and 1 on the other.

People Worry That AI Will Replace Workers. But It Could Make Some More Productive

These scholars say artificial intelligence could help reduce income inequality Read More

In This Issue

Students acting in a scene from The Trials. Two students appear to be in confrontation across a wooden table, with other students in the background, watching the pair.

Acting for Earth

Fourth-year drama students put their skills to the test with a theatrical warning of climate change run amok Read More

Jenan Noureddine, wearing a white lab coat and a mauve-coloured hijab, holding and examining a potted plant in a clean, white, well-lit room with a monitor displaying temperature, humidity and CO2 readings

Seeds of Resilience

Plant growth chambers will enable researchers to test how food crops fare under different conditions Read More

Evelina Tronina and Seema Malmji, wearing lab coats and disposable gloves, are holding bottles of liquid in front of a tall, stainless-steel scientific device in a white lab room. Malmji is pulling open a panel on the device.

Where Science Means Business

A new space at U of T Mississauga will help life-science startups refine their lab-based innovations Read More

Graphite illustration of a black rectangle with a grey-white rimmed circle inside containing a circular orange centre

How Optimistic Are You That AI Will Help Bring About a Better Future?

We asked 100 University of Toronto students. This is what they told us Read More

Sunny, exterior view of the west side of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus. The building consists of a tapered tower with narrow windows all around.

A Global Hub for Safe AI

The Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus will help develop artificial intelligence that benefits humanity – from ideas and scholarship to successful startups Read More

Digital illustration of a Go board game with black and white round pieces in play on a table with an empty chair. A row of black game boards arrayed vertically from the original board display different red lines representing different moves of the black pieces.

AI Learns Everything It Knows from Humans. Will Humans also Learn from AI?

The short answer: it depends Read More

A digital illustration of two small-sized people standing on a square platform, looking at an oversized image of the back of a person. There is a crack in the middle of the image and an eye peering through the crack.

The Age of Deception

AI is generating a disinformation arms race. The window to stop it may be closing Read More

Digital illustration of lockbox containing a blue face and a yellow key made up of pixels. There is a small opening on the left side of the box, with a trail of blue pixels outside the opening.

Safety First

AI has developed faster than anyone thought. Will it serve humanity’s best interests? Read More

Digital illustration of planet Earth surrounded by tiny white dots interconnected by dotted lines. Several red-coloured dots are connected by solid lines to areas on a world map underneath made of pixels of black land masses and white ocean.

A Sentinel for Global Health

AI is promising a better – and faster – way to monitor the world for emerging medical threats Read More

Digital illustration of students walking toward a large glass entrance to a building, with bushes and leaves covering the wall. A student is reading a book while sitting on a bench in front of a tree and flower bush.

St. George Campus Plans to Cut Carbon Emissions in Half by 2027

Groundbreaking plan comes on the heels of U of T’s number-one sustainability ranking Read More

Colour graphite illustration of a woman looking at her phone with a confused expression, while holding a credit card in the other hand

Think Twice Before Tapping

How to spot and avoid online scams Read More

Professor Ai Taniguchi, sitting in an armchair. Behind her is a table full of books and a framed painting.

Drawing Connections

Professor Ai Taniguchi explores how art and language can bring us together Read More

Colour graphite illustration of a bulky computer console with many buttons

Canada’s Information Era Began at U of T

A room-sized machine that could do calculations faster than humans first took shape here 75 years ago Read More

Digital illustration of a pregnant woman in a wheel chair, with her hands grasping the rocky surfaces of cliffs on either side of her.

Expecting the Best, Receiving Less

More people with disabilities are having children. Our health-care system is unprepared, says researcher Hilary Brown Read More

Artist rendering of a building constructed with mass timber and columns of well-spaced out windows.

For Greener Buildings, We Need to Rethink How We Construct Them

To meet its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050, Canada needs to cut emissions from the construction industry. Here’s how Read More

Wendy Wacko and Doris McCarthy are sitting together on a wooden window sill by a large window overlooking pebbled ground, long grass and a body of water.

They Were the Picture of Friendship

Painter Wendy Wacko pays homage to her mentor, Doris McCarthy, with a gift of art to U of T Scarborough Read More

Full Court Press

Basketball means the world to sports journalist Alex Wong. Here’s why Read More

Nicole Novroski, a professor of forensic science, in a white lab coat, standing in front of shelves and desks in a science lab

Police Are Using Your Publicly Available DNA to Solve Crimes. That’s a Good Thing.

But it’s also crucial for people to give informed consent to have their genetic information used this way Read More

Spring 2024

Featured Posts

AI Everywhere

Healing Power

Tuning into Tomorrow

People Worry That AI Will Replace Workers. But It Could Make Some More Productive

In This Issue

Acting for Earth

Seeds of Resilience

Where Science Means Business

How Optimistic Are You That AI Will Help Bring About a Better Future?

A Global Hub for Safe AI

AI Learns Everything It Knows from Humans. Will Humans also Learn from AI?

The Age of Deception

Safety First

A Sentinel for Global Health

St. George Campus Plans to Cut Carbon Emissions in Half by 2027

Think Twice Before Tapping

Drawing Connections

Canada’s Information Era Began at U of T

Expecting the Best, Receiving Less

For Greener Buildings, We Need to Rethink How We Construct Them

They Were the Picture of Friendship

Full Court Press

Police Are Using Your Publicly Available DNA to Solve Crimes. That’s a Good Thing.

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