$1M for new students working on AI and the environment

. Hugo Larochelle et Angele St-Pierre - UdeM graduates Hugo Larochelle and Angèle St-Pierre make a big donation that will fund scholarships for one or two recruits a year to come do their doctorates in artificial intelligence here. CONTENU - Université de Montréal will deepen its focus on research into artificial-intelligence by bringing one or two new doctoral students on scholarships here every year to look at how AI can help protect the environment. That's thanks to a $1-million donation announced today by UdM adjunct professor and Google Brain research scientist Hugo Larochelle and his wife Angèle St-Pierre. Both are graduates of the university, he in computer science, she in animal biology. We caught up with the philanthropic couple to ask about their major bequest. First of all, $1 million is a hefty chunk of cash.