I have some federal funding through the Vector Institute, some through a CIFAR AI chair and also some through the Schwartz Reisman Institute. These have been very successful initiatives in terms of retaining talent and just letting researchers do blue-sky research with a long-term view. I'm really happy with how this has all gone.
For some of the risks, it's been slightly awkward. The Vector Institute wants to work closely with industry and says, “We're going to disrupt. We're going to adopt as fast as possible,” and then Geoff Hinton will come in and say, “Also, there are all these horrible risks, and this is going to change everything and maybe ruin lots of things.” It puts them in a bit of an awkward situation.
Right now, the Schwartz Reisman Institute is doing a good job of thinking about the big picture, while at the Vector Institute, we're doing a good job of trying to get the short-term benefits rolled out to industry, health care and stuff like that.
I don't want to go on and speculate. If you have more specific questions, I'm happy to elaborate.