The Pulse
March 4, 2022

Samdesk is offering its real-time, AI-powered crisis monitoring and alerts at no cost to people and organizations who need to stay informed about what's happening in Ukraine.

"We're living through pretty extraordinary times, where a global event has tremendous impact, not only just for the people of Ukraine, obviously and significantly, but will have a spillover effect to pretty much the entire population of the world," said James Neufeld, samdesk's CEO and founder.

The Edmonton-based startup is prioritizing requests from first responders and others that have a direct need for the information as Russia continues the invasion it launched on Feb. 24. That includes non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International.

"It's critical for us to support NGOs and governments that are building cases around the atrocities that are happening. Social is that kind of eyewitness perspective, where we're seeing a lot of that come through there," Neufeld explained.

Samdesk has also been helping corporate clients, typically its largest customer segment, keep track of sanctions and other restrictions so that brands can "be aware of their responsibilities to respond to the situation."

Neufeld said samdesk's system has several checks and balances in place to fight misinformation and disinformation. For one thing, it's not paying much attention to political commentary or rhetoric, but rather reactions on social media to actual events.

"What we're really good at is understanding physical, real-world events in space and time. What that allows us to do is look at a lot of different data sources from different angles to corroborate what we think are factual events," he said.

Once the company's artificial intelligence detects an event such as an explosion, a missile attack, gunfights, or troop movements, its human employees help to contextualize what happened. "There's no human team large enough to process 100,000 different data sources and billions of data points every single day ... but we are also fans of the human in the loop," Neufeld said.

And the people-powered portion of the company continues to grow. Samdesk has doubled from 25 to 50 since it closed its $13.5 million Series A funding round last fall, and is poised to add another 25 people within the next year.

• More than 10,000 kilograms of emergency supplies — such as baby food, gloves, and medical supplies — have been gathered by members of Edmonton's Ukrainian community to help people in Ukraine. Organizers are hoping the Canadian military will help deliver the supplies. CTV News has been updating a list of ways to help Ukraine from Edmonton.
• Gas prices in Edmonton spiked to $1.559 per litre at some stations on Thursday morning as the Russian invasion of Ukraine causes international oil prices, and uncertainty, to rise. GasBuddy showed only a handful of locations with regular grade priced at below $1.40 per litre.
• The Realtors Association of Edmonton said the city's housing market jumped 41.7% last month in terms of homes sold, compared to the same time in 2021. The average price of single-family homes rose to $493,543 while condos sold for $226,811 on average, a slight decrease year-over-year. A record 24 homes sold for over $1 million in the first two months of the year. Single-family homes averaged 42 days on the market, a five-day decrease from February of last year.
• Edmonton Elks president Victor Cui spoke to Postmedia's Terry Jones about his first month on the job, saying he believes it is possible to once again fill Commonwealth Stadium. The team revealed its new helmet design, sporting the double-EE logo it had before changing its name.
• "Exciting" is how St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron referred to Edmonton city council's decision last week to re-prioritize the Metro Line LRT extension from Blatchford to Castle Downs. "It demonstrates that regional collaboration does have an influence in the decision-making process," Heron said. St. Albert's transportation master plan currently includes a long-term plan for a seven-kilometre LRT — at a cost of at least $1.1 billion — from the terminus of the Metro Line, reports StAlbertToday.ca.
• In a 7-4 vote last week, city council approved an expanded pilot project allowing the consumption of alcohol in some public parks this summer. Council also asked for further analysis of the implications and best practices, with a report due back on May 30.

This weekend's calendar includes music, dance, and poetry to lift you through a snowy weekend.

• March 4: VIP Opening and A-Line Variety Show at SkirtsAfire
• March 4-6: All Because I'm a Woman at the Citadel Theatre
• March 4-5: Bboyizm: In My Body from the Brian Webb Dance Company at the Timms Centre
• March 5: Missae 8 hosted by Pro Coro Canada
• March 6: C.U.E. Connect, Unlearn, Expand: Poetry Reading at CO*LAB Community {Arts} Laboratory

Photo: SkirtsAfire features plenty of musical acts through to March 13. (SkirtsAfire)