A DevOps toolchain is a set or combination of tools that aid in the delivery, development, and management of software applications throughout the systems development life cycle, as coordinated by an organization that uses DevOps practices. Generally, DevOps tools fit into one or more activities, which supports specific DevOps initiatives: Plan, Create, Verify, Package, Release, Configure, Monitor, and Version Control. == Toolchains == In software, a toolchain is the set of programming tools that is used to perform a complex software development task or to create a software product, which is typically another computer program or a set of related programs. In general, the tools forming a toolchain are executed consecutively so the output or resulting environment state of each tool becomes the input or starting environment for the next one, but the term is also used when referring to a set of related tools that are not necessarily executed consecutively. As DevOps is a set of practices that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information technology (IT) professionals, while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes, its implementation can include the definition of the series of tools used at various stages of the lifecycle; because DevOps is a cultural shift and collaboration between development and operations, there is no one product that can be considered a single DevOps tool. Instead a collection of tools, potentially from a variety of vendors, are used in one or more stages of the lifecycle. == Stages of DevOps == === Plan === Plan consists of two elements: "define" and "plan". This activity refers to the business value and application requirements. Specifically "Plan" activities include: Production metrics, objects and feedback Requirements Business metrics Update release metrics Release plan, timing and business case Security policy and requirement A combination of the IT personnel will be involved in these activities: business application owners, software development, software architects, continual release management, security officers and the organization responsible for managing the production of IT infrastructure. === Create === Create consists of the building, coding, and configuring of the software development process. The specific activities are: Design of the software and configuration Coding including code quality and performance Software build and build performance Release candidate Tools and vendors in this category often overlap with other categories. Because DevOps is about breaking down silos, this is reflective in the activities and product solutions. === Verify === Verify is directly associated with ensuring the quality of the software release; activities designed to ensure code quality is maintained and the highest quality is deployed to production. The main activities in this are: Acceptance testing Regression testing Security and vulnerability analysis Performance Configuration testing Solutions for verify-related activities generally fall under four main categories: Test automation, Static analysis, Test Lab, and Security. === Package === Package refers to the activities involved once the release is ready for deployment, often also referred to as staging or Preproduction / "preprod". This often includes tasks and activities such as: Approval/preapprovals Package configuration Triggered releases Release staging and holding === Release === Release related activities include schedule, orchestration, provisioning and deploying software into production and targeted environment. The specific Release activities include: Release coordination Deploying and promoting applications Fallbacks and recovery Scheduled/timed releases Solutions that cover this aspect of the toolchain include application release automation, deployment automation and release management. === Configure === Configure activities fall under the operation side of DevOps. Once software is deployed, there may be additional IT infrastructure provisioning and configuration activities required. Specific activities including: Infrastructure storage, database and network provisioning and configuring Application provision and configuration. The main types of solutions that facilitate these activities are continuous configuration automation, configuration management, and infrastructure as code tools. === Monitor === Monitoring is an important link in a DevOps toolchain. It allows IT organization to identify specific issues of specific releases and to understand the impact on end-users. A summary of Monitor related activities are: Performance of IT infrastructure End-user response and experience Production metrics and statistics Information from monitoring activities often impacts Plan activities required for changes and for new release cycles. === Version Control === Version Control is an important link in a DevOps toolchain and a component of software configuration management. Version Control is the management of changes to documents, computer programs, large web sites, and other collections of information. A summary of Version Control related activities are: Non-linear development Distributed development Compatibility with existent systems and protocols Toolkit-based design Information from Version Control often supports Release activities required for changes and for new release cycles.
Text simplification
Text simplification is an aspect of natural language processing that involves modifying, organizing, or categorizing existing text to make it easier to understand while retaining its original meaning. This process is essential in today's world, where communication is increasingly complex due to advancements in science, technology, and media. Human languages are inherently intricate, with extensive vocabularies and complex structures that can be challenging for machines to handle efficiently. Researchers have found that semantic compression techniques can help streamline and simplify text by reducing linguistic diversity and simplifying the vocabulary used in a given context. == Example == Text simplification involves modifying complex sentences into simpler ones to enhance readability and comprehension. Siddharthan (2006) provides an example to illustrate this process. The original sentence contains multiple clauses and phrases, which can be broken down into simpler sentences for better understanding. Also contributing to the firmness in copper, the analyst noted, was a report by Chicago purchasing agents, which precedes the full purchasing agents report that is due out today and gives an indication of what the full report might hold. Also contributing to the firmness in copper, the analyst noted, was a report by Chicago purchasing agents. The Chicago report precedes the full purchasing agents report. The Chicago report gives an indication of what the full report might hold. The full report is due out today. An approach to text simplification involves lexical simplification via lexical substitution, a process that replaces complex words with simpler synonyms. Identifying complex words is a challenge addressed by machine learning classifiers trained on labeled data. Researchers have found that asking labelers to sort words by complexity levels yields more consistent results than the traditional method of categorizing words as simple or complex.
Authoritative Legal Entity Identifier
An Authoritative Legal Entity Identifier (ALEI) is the identifier assigned by a government jurisdiction authorized by statute or decree to create a legal entity and to maintain the authoritative registries of legal entities. ALEIs are used within supply chain data, ERP applications and master data management systems to support accurate and consistent identification of entities in digital records, supply chains, and government databases. ALEIs are described in the international standard ISO 8000-116, which outlines a structured format that makes the locally unique identifier into a globally unique one and ensures global interoperability and data quality. == Structure == An ALEI is composed of three main components: a prefix that identifies the jurisdiction and register, a subdomain element (optional), and the local registration number of the entity. For example, the identifier "US-DE.BER:3031657" refers to an entity registered in the Delaware Business Entity Register in the United States. The standardization of this structure is governed by ISO 8000-116, which is designed to ensure each ALEI is globally unique and resolvable. == Comparison with other identifiers == ALEIs differ from proxy identifiers such as the DUNS number, NCAGE code, or the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) managed by GLEIF. While proxy identifiers can be issued by institutions that do not create legal entities, ALEIs are created and maintained by public bodies with the authority to form and register legal entities. This authoritative origin makes ALEIs particularly suitable for applications involving legal traceability, government regulation, and international transparency efforts. == Usage == ALEIs are increasingly utilized to identify legal entities in public and private datasets. The identifiers support supply chain accuracy, regulatory compliance, and the unification of master data. The first practical implementation of an ALEI was the International Business Registration Number (IBRN), developed to provide globally unique identifiers for registered business entities. IBRNs are issued by authorized government jurisdictions and are used to verify entities across borders, particularly in the context of trade facilitation and data exchange systems. For instance, business directories and registration systems in U.S. states like Connecticut provide structured registration documents that can be used to verify the ALEIs they issue. The use of ALEIs has been recommended by international organizations such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Open ownership to improve beneficial ownership registries. == Policy and regulation == ALEIs have been referenced in policy consultations such as those related to the U.S. Financial Data Transparency Act. Federal institutions including the Federal Reserve and FDIC have examined the potential for ALEIs to unify entity identification across regulatory databases.
AlphaTensor
AlphaTensor is an artificial intelligence system developed by DeepMind for discovering efficient matrix multiplication algorithms using reinforcement learning. Introduced in 2022, the system was based on AlphaZero and formulated the search for matrix multiplication algorithms as a single-player game called TensorGame. AlphaTensor was designed to search for new ways to multiply matrices with fewer scalar multiplication operations. Matrix multiplication is a fundamental operation in linear algebra, numerical analysis, scientific computing, computer graphics, and machine learning. The system discovered thousands of matrix multiplication algorithms, including algorithms that rediscovered known human-designed methods and others that improved on previously known results for particular matrix sizes and mathematical settings. == Background == Matrix multiplication is one of the basic operations in numerical computing. The standard algorithm for multiplying two square matrices has cubic time complexity, while faster algorithms such as the Strassen algorithm reduce the number of multiplication operations by using more complex algebraic decompositions. Finding optimal matrix multiplication algorithms can be difficult because it involves searching through a large space of possible tensor decompositions. AlphaTensor approached this problem by representing algorithm discovery as TensorGame, in which each move corresponds to an operation that reduces a tensor representing matrix multiplication. The goal of the game is to find a low-rank decomposition of the matrix multiplication tensor, corresponding to an efficient multiplication algorithm. == Development == AlphaTensor was developed by DeepMind and described in a paper published in Nature in October 2022. The system built on the reinforcement-learning approach used in AlphaZero, which had previously been applied to games such as Go, chess, and shogi. Unlike those games, TensorGame involved a very large search space, requiring changes to the AlphaZero-style search method and neural network architecture. DeepMind released source code and discovered algorithms associated with the publication through a public GitHub repository. == Results == AlphaTensor discovered matrix multiplication algorithms over both standard arithmetic and finite fields. One widely reported result was a method for multiplying 4 × 4 matrices over the field with two elements using 47 multiplication operations, improving on the 49 operations required by applying Strassen's algorithm recursively in that setting. The system also found algorithms optimized for particular computer hardware, including algorithms designed for graphics processing units and Tensor Processing Units. DeepMind stated that some of the hardware-specific algorithms improved practical execution time compared with commonly used algorithms on the tested hardware. == Significance == AlphaTensor was described as an example of using machine learning not only to apply existing algorithms, but to assist in discovering new ones. The work was connected to broader research in algorithm discovery, automated machine learning, program synthesis, and computational complexity theory, especially the open problem of determining the optimal complexity of matrix multiplication. AlphaTensor later became part of a broader group of Google DeepMind systems for algorithm and mathematical discovery, alongside systems such as AlphaDev and AlphaEvolve.
Artificial intelligence industry in Canada
The artificial intelligence industry in Canada is a rapidly expanding sector. Although Canada held a pioneering role in the early development of artificial intelligence, transforming research excellence into broad commercial adoption has proven challenging. Despite globally recognized scientific achievements and a deep pool of skilled experts, by June 2024, Canada recorded the lowest rate of AI integration among OECD countries, with only 12% of firms implementing AI in their products or services. However, AI adoption has shown significant momentum—doubling from mid-2024 to mid-2025, rising from 6.1% to 12.2%. As of September 2025, Statistics Canada indicated that while about one-third of Canadian businesses had no plans to adopt artificial intelligence in the next year, 14.5% reported intentions to begin using AI for producing goods or delivering services. The primary reasons for not moving forward with AI were lack of relevance, insufficient knowledge, and privacy concerns. According to Public Works Canada (PwC), the pace of AI adoption in Canada is roughly three-quarters of the United States rate, highlighting a notable gap between the two countries in business integration of this technology. British-Canadian computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton stated in 2025 that Canadian companies are adopting artificial intelligence at a slower pace, which may result in the loss of the country's early advantages in the field. At the "All In AI" conference held in Montreal in September 2025, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, described "Building digital sovereignty" as the most pressing democratic issue of the time. He introduced a 26-person task force focused on updating Canada's AI strategy. In their 2024 report " "Learning Together for Responsible Artificial Intelligence" report, the Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada stressed that public awareness, trust, and AI literacy are essential for the responsible adoption and governance of AI in Canada. Montreal workshops in 2021 expanded the OECD's 2019 definition of AI as "the set of computer techniques that enable a machine (e.g., a computer or telephone) to perform tasks that typically require intelligence, such as reasoning or learning. It is also referred to as the automation of intelligent tasks. Scientific developments in AI, such as deep-learning techniques, have made it possible to design access to huge amounts of data and ever-increasing computing power. These new techniques have been rapidly deployed on a large scale in all areas of social life, in transport, education, culture and health." == Federal investments and policy == The 2025 federal budget allocates over $1 billion over the next five years to bolster Canada's artificial intelligence and quantum computing ecosystem. == Industry landscape or research hubs == AlexNet, an influential deep convolutional neural network developed at the University of Toronto by Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever, and Geoffrey Hinton, marked a pivotal turning point in modern artificial intelligence. In 2012, it achieved a dramatic reduction in error rates for the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC), showcasing the practical power of deep learning and GPU acceleration. The success of AlexNet helped cement Canada’s reputation for AI leadership and inspired rapid adoption of deep learning across the technology sector, with ongoing impact in both academic and commercial domains. In healthcare, AlexNet has been adapted for medical imaging to assist with analyzing radiographs, mammograms, and other scans, including identifying abnormalities and supporting clinical diagnosis. In 2015, the Ottawa-based start-up Advanced Symbolics Inc. (ASI) began developing Polly, an artificial intelligence system designed to analyze and anticipate how target audiences behave—enabling more effective communication strategies and advertising campaigns. Polly was named after its first assignment analyzing the politics of Brexit. The AI gained widespread attention in 2016 for accurately forecasting both the Brexit referendum and the 2016 U.S. presidential election won by Donald Trump. The company states that Polly is used by organizations in diverse sectors—including healthcare, politics, entertainment, and mental health research—to support decision-making based on predictive analytics. Chartwatch, an AI tool developed in Canada, has been shown to reduce unexpected hospital deaths by 26% according to a 2024 study. The system analyzes patient data to detect subtle signs of deterioration, supporting healthcare teams in providing timely interventions. === Notable figures in AI in Canada === Geoffrey Hinton's decades-long work eventually formed the foundation of artificial intelligence, which earned him the Nobel Prize for physics in 2024. Yoshua Bengio, who won the Turing Award in 2018 for his pioneering work in deep learning, founded what would become Mila in 1993. Mila, is currently a collaboration between four Montreal-based academic partners.—the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy includes Alberta's Amii, Toronto's Vector Institute, and Mila. Fakhreddine Karray's work on operational AI has had tangible impact across several Canadian-relevant sectors, notably intelligent transportation systems, virtual healthcare, and driver safety. === AI in the oil and gas industry === According to a 2020 Ernst & Young report the oil and gas industry in Canada is using AI in automating routine, repetitive, and dangerous tasks with technologies like robotic process automation and machine learning; optimizing production and processing; enhancing transportation logistics; improving equipment operation and monitoring; and enabling preventative maintenance. AI is also deployed for data analysis to improve prediction and decision-making, and is expected to automate up to 50% of job competencies in upstream oil and gas by 2040. Oilsands giant Suncor Energy operates a large fleet of autonomous trucks and has started using AI in its dispatch system at the Mildred Lake mine. As of 2024, AI manages routine tasks such as allocating trucks to dump stations and sending them to refuelling locations. === Indigenous and Inuit Innovation in AI === Indigenous organizations have been working on the creation of new technologies for language revitalization in partnership with National Research Council of Canada since the mid-2010s. In 2025, Inuit researchers and technology partners launched an AI-powered initiative to support the revitalization and preservation of Inuktitut, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can be adapted for Indigenous language and cultural priorities. A 2025 CBC article notes that, while AI can help revitalize Inuktitut, Inuit leaders emphasize concerns about data sovereignty, information ownership, and the need for Indigenous leadership to ensure transparency, privacy, and accountability in AI development. == Regulation == Canada's Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) was proposed in November 2022, as part of the Digital Charter Implementation Act (Bill C-27). As well voluntary codes, such as the September 2023 Code of Conduct for Generative AI, and landmark investments in advanced computing infrastructure and the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (CAISI) reflect Canada's commitment to both safety and global competitiveness. == AI infrastructure == Canada has undertaken efforts to expand its AI computing infrastructure at both provincial and federal levels. The federal government's Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy, allocated up to C$2 billion in Budget 2024, aims to enhance computing capacity to support domestic AI industry growth and AI adoption across the economy, with up to C$700 million designated to mobilize private sector investment in new or expanded data centres. Alberta has introduced an AI Data Centres Strategy to position itself as a leading North American destination for data centre investment, targeting C$100 billion worth of AI data centres under development by 2030. One major project under Alberta's strategy is the Wonder Valley AI Data Centre Park near Grande Prairie, which was exempted from provincial environmental impact assessment in April 2026 but still requires permits demonstrating safe construction and operation. According to Statista, as of April 2026, Canada has 287 data centres.
Voice activity detection
Voice activity detection (VAD), also known as speech activity detection or speech detection, is the detection of the presence or absence of human speech, used in speech processing. The main uses of VAD are in speaker diarization, speech coding and speech recognition. It can facilitate speech processing, and can also be used to deactivate some processes during non-speech section of an audio session: it can avoid unnecessary coding/transmission of silence packets in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, saving on computation and on network bandwidth. VAD is an important enabling technology for a variety of speech-based applications. Therefore, various VAD algorithms have been developed that provide varying features and compromises between latency, sensitivity, accuracy and computational cost. Some VAD algorithms also provide further analysis, for example whether the speech is voiced, unvoiced or sustained. Voice activity detection is usually independent of language. It was first investigated for use on time-assignment speech interpolation (TASI) systems. == Algorithm overview == The typical design of a VAD algorithm is as follows: There may first be a noise reduction stage, e.g. via spectral subtraction. Then some features or quantities are calculated from a section of the input signal. A classification rule is applied to classify the section as speech or non-speech – often this classification rule finds when a value exceeds a certain threshold. There may be some feedback in this sequence, in which the VAD decision is used to improve the noise estimate in the noise reduction stage, or to adaptively vary the threshold(s). These feedback operations improve the VAD performance in non-stationary noise (i.e. when the noise varies a lot). A representative set of recently published VAD methods formulates the decision rule on a frame by frame basis using instantaneous measures of the divergence distance between speech and noise. The different measures which are used in VAD methods include spectral slope, correlation coefficients, log likelihood ratio, cepstral, weighted cepstral, and modified distance measures. Independently from the choice of VAD algorithm, a compromise must be made between having voice detected as noise, or noise detected as voice (between false positive and false negative). A VAD operating in a mobile phone must be able to detect speech in the presence of a range of very diverse types of acoustic background noise. In these difficult detection conditions it is often preferable that a VAD should fail-safe, indicating speech detected when the decision is in doubt, to lower the chance of losing speech segments. The biggest difficulty in the detection of speech in this environment is the very low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) that are encountered. It may be impossible to distinguish between speech and noise using simple level detection techniques when parts of the speech utterance are buried below the noise. == Applications == VAD is an integral part of different speech communication systems such as audio conferencing, echo cancellation, speech recognition, speech encoding, speaker recognition and hands-free telephony. In the field of multimedia applications, VAD allows simultaneous voice and data applications. Similarly, in Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS), it controls and reduces the average bit rate and enhances overall coding quality of speech. In cellular radio systems (for instance GSM and CDMA systems) based on Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) mode, VAD is essential for enhancing system capacity by reducing co-channel interference and power consumption in portable digital devices. In speech processing applications, voice activity detection plays an important role since non-speech frames are often discarded. For a wide range of applications such as digital mobile radio, Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) or speech storage, it is desirable to provide a discontinuous transmission of speech-coding parameters. Advantages can include lower average power consumption in mobile handsets, higher average bit rate for simultaneous services like data transmission, or a higher capacity on storage chips. However, the improvement depends mainly on the percentage of pauses during speech and the reliability of the VAD used to detect these intervals. On the one hand, it is advantageous to have a low percentage of speech activity. On the other hand, clipping, that is the loss of milliseconds of active speech, should be minimized to preserve quality. This is the crucial problem for a VAD algorithm under heavy noise conditions. === Use in telemarketing === One controversial application of VAD is in conjunction with predictive dialers used by telemarketing firms. In order to maximize agent productivity, telemarketing firms set up predictive dialers to call more numbers than they have agents available, knowing most calls will end up in either "Ring – No Answer" or answering machines. When a person answers, they typically speak briefly ("Hello", "Good evening", etc.) and then there is a brief period of silence. Answering machine messages are usually 3–15 seconds of continuous speech. By setting VAD parameters correctly, dialers can determine whether a person or a machine answered the call and, if it's a person, transfer the call to an available agent. If it detects an answering machine message, the dialer hangs up. Often, even when the system correctly detects a person answering the call, no agent may be available, resulting in a "silent call". Call screening with a multi-second message like "please say who you are, and I may pick up the phone" will frustrate such automated calls. == Performance evaluation == To evaluate a VAD, its output using test recordings is compared with those of an "ideal" VAD – created by hand-annotating the presence or absence of voice in the recordings. The performance of a VAD is commonly evaluated on the basis of the following four parameters: FEC (Front End Clipping): clipping introduced in passing from noise to speech activity; MSC (Mid Speech Clipping): clipping due to speech misclassified as noise; OVER: noise interpreted as speech due to the VAD flag remaining active in passing from speech activity to noise; NDS (Noise Detected as Speech): noise interpreted as speech within a silence period. Although the method described above provides useful objective information concerning the performance of a VAD, it is only an approximate measure of the subjective effect. For example, the effects of speech signal clipping can at times be hidden by the presence of background noise, depending on the model chosen for the comfort noise synthesis, so some of the clipping measured with objective tests is in reality not audible. It is therefore important to carry out subjective tests on VADs, the main aim of which is to ensure that the clipping perceived is acceptable. In VoIP applications, front-end clipping can be reduced by rewinding to shortly before the detection and sending very slightly delayed data. This kind of test requires a certain number of listeners to judge recordings containing the processing results of the VADs being tested, giving marks to several speech sequences on the following features: Quality; Comprehension difficulty; Audibility of clipping. These marks are then used to calculate average results for each of the features listed above, thus providing a global estimate of the behavior of the VAD being tested. To conclude, whereas objective methods are very useful in an initial stage to evaluate the quality of a VAD, subjective methods are more significant. As they require the participation of several people for a few days, increasing cost, they are generally only used when a proposal is about to be standardized. == Implementations == One early standard VAD is that developed by British Telecom for use in the Pan-European digital cellular mobile telephone service in 1991. It uses inverse filtering trained on non-speech segments to filter out background noise, so that it can then more reliably use a simple power-threshold to decide if a voice is present. The G.729 standard calculates the following features for its VAD: line spectral frequencies, full-band energy, low-band energy (<1 kHz), and zero-crossing rate. It applies a simple classification using a fixed decision boundary in the space defined by these features, and then applies smoothing and adaptive correction to improve the estimate. The GSM standard includes two VAD options developed by ETSI. Option 1 computes the SNR in nine bands and applies a threshold to these values. Option 2 calculates different parameters: channel power, voice metrics, and noise power. It then thresholds the voice metrics using a threshold that varies according to the estimated SNR. The Speex audio compression library uses a procedure named Improved Minima Controlled Recursive Averaging, which uses a smoothed representation of spectral pow
Known-item search
Known-item search is a specialization of information exploration which represents the activities carried out by searchers who have a particular item in mind. In the context of library catalogs, known‐item search means a search for an item for which the author or title is known. Although the concept of known-item search originated in library science, it is now applied in the context of web search and other online search activities. Known-item search is distinguished from exploratory search, in which a searcher is unfamiliar with the domain of their search goal, unsure about the ways to achieve their goal, and/or unsure about what their goal is.