‘Godfather’ of AI Geoffrey Hinton offers $1-million for Ontario Science Centre roof

Geoffrey Hinton, a world-renowned Toronto-based computer scientist often called the godfather of artificial intelligence, says he would donate $1-million to repair the Ontario Science Centre if the provincial government agrees to keep the institution in its current 55-year-old building, which it closed without warning last week.

Dr. Hinton told The Globe and Mail in an interview that he was adding his name to others from the tech industry who have offered to pay for critical roof repairs to keep the Science Centre, located in Toronto’s Flemingdon Park neighbourhood, open.

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But he said he would only participate if Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government abandons its plan, announced last year, to move the facility to a smaller yet-to-be-constructed building at its waterfront Ontario Place site, next to a controversial planned spa and waterpark. Dr. Hinton said he had “little faith” the new building, not due to open until 2028, would be as good as the current space due to its smaller size.

Dr. Hinton, 76, is an emeritus professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and the chief scientific advisor at the Vector Institute. He left a senior post with Google last year citing his concerns about the future impact of AI. He said the Science Centre is needed to nurture the next generation of scientists.

“The Science Centre engages children’s natural curiosity about the world, which is the foundation of all science and engineering,” Dr. Hinton said. “They are going to need some understanding of science and engineering to deal with whatever future awaits us. It would be a tragedy to lose one of Ontario’s jewels.”

In a surprise move last Friday, the Ontario government said it was immediately shutting the Ontario Science Centre, citing an engineering report that said some faulty concrete panels in its roof needed repairs or it could collapse under the weight of a heavy snowfall this winter.

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The head of the government’s Infrastructure Ontario agency, Michael Lindsay, said last week the needed repairs would cost as much as $40-million and take between two and five years. But critics have pointed to other passages in the engineering report that show only a small percentage of concrete roof panels were found to be at risk. The report also included as an option that instead of a shutdown, parts of the building could be cordoned off for phased repairs. And it estimates that the costs of short-term roof repairs could be as little as just over $500,000.

Based on those numbers, former executives with Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify had already said publicly that they would raise or put forward as much as $1.5-millon to repair the existing Science Centre’s roof and keep it open.

Dr. Hinton said has been approaching others in the tech industry to see if they would contribute.

Speaking to The Globe on Wednesday, Aidan Gomez, co-founder of Toronto-based AI startup Cohere, said Dr. Hinton had just contacted him. He said he was willing to put in $250,000 to save the science centre. He said his father was a teacher at the high school embedded in the facility and that going to the building as a child inspired him to pursue a tech career.

“It’s a fantastic facility. We just need to actually maintain it,” he said. “I still remember loads of the exhibits, looking at the moon rocks and sitting on the simulated moon lander. It was just such a fun place to be. And you learn so much about the world.”

The abrupt shutdown of the Science Centre sparked outrage from many in the community and from local and provincial opposition politicians. Both Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie intend to speak at the site on Thursday and have vowed to fight the shutdown.

The government has already started looking for an interim site for the Science Centre’s exhibits, before the Ontario Place site is completed. It says it needed to close it now in order to safely move exhibits out of the building by Oct. 31.

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Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has pointed to the city’s new financial deal, signed last year with Mr. Ford, that pledged the Ontario government to participate in talks on the future of science-based programming at the existing Science Centre. Those talks have not taken place. She has also welcomed word that philanthropists were interested in contributing cash for repairs, but has ruled out letting her cash-strapped city take on the bill.

The province has been defending its decision.

In a statement earlier this week, Ash Milton, a spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma, said the move was necessary as “significant areas” in two of the Science Centre’s three buildings had not been examined by engineers.

Mr. Milton also pointed to the report’s conclusion that in order to “mitigate all risks” associated with the concrete roof panels, all of them should be replaced “in their entirety with new steel deck in alignment with the next roofing assembly renewal.”

He also cited the long list of other problems with the building, including critical repairs needed for its heating and air-conditioning system.

“The approach to close and decant the facility was taken out of an abundance of caution and to ensure we keep all members of the public and staff safe,” he said in an e-mail.