Yoshua Bengio, one of the “godfathers” of artificial intelligence, says there’s an urgent need for the world to “wake up” to the existential risks posed by AI technology, and urge governments to act. “The whole world is waking up to something that sounded like science fiction to most people,” said Bengio, the founder and scientific director of the Montreal Institute...
Canadian AI sovereignty depends on both the rapid deployment of infrastructure and on using the country’s leadership in safe AI models to allay fears surrounding the technology. That was the message from several industry leaders on Wednesday at All In, Canada’s biggest annual AI conference. Held in Montreal since 2023 as a way to promote Canadian AI, this year’s edition...
The United States and China are advancing the frontier of artificial intelligence (AI) at breakneck speed, racing to build systems whose consequences neither country is able to manage alone. Each new generation of models arrives before governments have fully understood the implications of the last, while policy makers and regulators struggle to keep pace. Given this backdrop, is there a...
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,104 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, from July 28th to 30th, 2026 as part of an omnibus survey. The sample included both land- and celllines across Canada. The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest Census...
When Mark Carney’s government was ready to launch its big strategy for artificial intelligence, it chose Toronto General Hospital for the big reveal — a very political statement. Or maybe it’s more correct to call it a reassurance. In a nation where skepticism about AI runs high, Carney and his AI minister, Evan Solomon, were eager to point out that...
Shortly before the House of Commons rose for the summer, Prime Minister Carney and AI Minister Evan Solomon released their long awaited and repeatedly delayed AI strategy, ‘AI for All.’ The strategy served as an update, and in some cases a duplication, of the preexisting Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy put forward by the Trudeau government in 2017; and comes just...
As AI-generated content becomes cheaper and more realistic, strategists warn disclosure requirements alone won't preserve public trust. As the third-party advocacy group Build Canada becomes the second politically adjacent organization in as many weeks to publicly experiment with artificial intelligence-generated communications, technology experts and digital strategists say the technology’s rapid evolution demands stronger ethical standards as legislation alone is unlikely...
Canada is pushing for safe, equitable adoption of artificial intelligence at the United Nations, where Ottawa's ambassador says AI is a significant priority for his team. "AI governance is something that the UN has to do -- has a responsibility to do," David Lametti told The Canadian Press. "The UN remains critically important, (it) remains perhaps the only institution in...
On June 12th, the American artificial intelligence company Anthropic —maker of the Claude AI assistant— issued an extraordinary statement, whose opening paragraph reads as follows: “The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including...
Chief Justice Richard Wagner says artificial intelligence is proving to be both promising and problematic for Canadian courtrooms. At his annual news conference today, Wagner said distinguishing fact from fiction has become more difficult -- and more important -- in a time when information can be generated and shared rapidly. Society is grappling with the emergence of machine learning and...
AI needs data centres. Lots of them. But as the race to build them is gathering momentum, so too is opposition. A Washington Post poll found voter "comfort with a new data centre in your community" was cut in half from 69% to 35% in just 3 years. Unusually, Trump voters and Democrats are mostly on the same page expressing...
Mark Carney's Liberal government wants Canada to embrace the arrival of artificial intelligence technology. It apparently believes that, for the country's economic sake, Canada needs to embrace AI. But it, quite reasonably, sees Canadians' lack of trust in AI as an obstacle. "Trust is the North Star of this strategy," the Carney government said in the AI strategy it released...
Ottawa wants to increase Canadians' use of artificial intelligence -- and it plans to do so through free AI training and legislation to tackle concerns like surveillance pricing and chatbot safety. Announcing the government's new AI strategy in Toronto on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said "globally, Canada ranks near the bottom of countries in AI training, in literacy and...
Ottawa's new national artificial intelligence strategy says Canada has a major AI adoption gap and looks to build trust through legislation that tackles concerns about surveillance pricing and chatbot safety. The strategy being announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Toronto today plans to increase use of AI through free training for all Canadians.
A draft version of Canada's national AI strategy outlines a drive to scale up business adoption and provide all Canadians access to free AI literacy training, but is short on specifics regarding how the federal government will protect Canadians from the technology's potentially harmful effects. The document, obtained by CBC News and titled "AI for All," says the decisions Canada...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the federal government will introduce its long-awaited AI strategy next week. Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon initially promised it would be tabled by the end of last year. The government at first signalled an adoption-focused approach, while critics said the group Ottawa asked to advise it on AI leaned too much on the perspective of...
Ottawa has spent more than $800 million on artificial intelligence technology since 2023, according to data provided by the federal government. The sum includes two previously announced deals: a $350 million public service contract with Dayforce to replace the troubled Phoenix pay system and a $240 million investment in the AI company Cohere.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon says the government's new national AI strategy will consider the technology's impacts on the labour market. It's been six months since the government wrapped up fast-tracked consultations on the strategy, which Solomon initially promised would be tabled by the end of last year. Solomon says the impact of AI has been changing and he is...
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon is becoming Canada’s “face of AI,” and is doing well at building global partnerships, although developing a domestic environment to help commercialize ideas in the sector will be one of the biggest hurdles to address in a refreshed AI strategy, according to sector experts. “[Solomon is] certainly collaborating with all the right people. He’s been...
Canada needs to make workforce upskilling a central pillar to the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy. The global economy is entering an AI accelerating phase. Countries that have relatively large knowledge economy sectors, like Canada, face higher exposure to AI-driven change. Budget 2025 focused on AI infrastructure investments. Budget 2026 must expand the focus to AI workforce upskilling. AI is...
Across North America, the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has begun to collide with public concerns about energy use, environmental impact, and who ultimately benefits.
Culture Minister Marc Miller says the government must have a serious conversation about AI systems' use of news. "Having the news cannibalized and regurgitated undermines the spirit of the use of that news in the first place and the purpose for which it's used and we have to have a serious conversation with the platforms that purport to use it...
In a stunning showdown last week between the Trump administration and frontier AI company Anthropic, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded that Anthropic allow its AI models to be used for “any lawful purpose,” without any restrictions. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused and laid out the company’s two red lines for its models’ usage by the US government: barring...
A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Tumbler Ridge shooter sent messages about gun violence to OpenAI’s ChatGPT over the course of several days last June. The posts were flagged by OpenAI’s automated review system and roughly a dozen employees debated whether the posts indicated the possibility of real world violence. Ultimately, however, OpenAI leadership decided...
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has called representatives of OpenAI to Ottawa to discuss safety concerns after learning the killer in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., was banned from using the company's ChatGPT platform months before the murders The company banned Jesse Van Rootselaar's account in June but said the activities on the account didn't meet the threshold...
The Bank of Canada’s second-in-command is warning of future inflation risks if investment in artificial intelligence is concentrated among the country’s big companies. Article content Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said that while large firms have the scale and capacity to make “big bets on technology,” the country’s ailing productivity is more likely to be repaired if there’s broader adoption...
Is artificial intelligence the salvation of mankind, or its downfall? Are markets justified in bidding up AI stocks as high as they have, or is it all a bubble? Will we look back on the hundreds of billions of dollars the AI titans are currently investing in capacity as having laid the foundations for a new age of prosperity, or...
Bell Canada and SAP Canada have signed a deal to jointly develop a Canadian‑operated cloud solution aimed at serving Canadian governments and regulated industries that require strict control over sensitive information. Under a memorandum of understanding, the companies will establish a fully Canadian-isolated cloud alternative intended to help ensure sensitive government, citizen and organizational data remain within Canada. The partnership...
Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its AI journey. New research from Strand Partners, conducted on behalf of AWS Canada, reveals that 650,000 Canadian businesses have embraced artificial intelligence—a 33% increase year-over-year that outpaces the global adoption of the internet. With one business adopting AI every three minutes, the momentum is clear. Yet the choices we make today –...
Nathan, a Toronto-based AI engineering manager for a Big Tech company, doesn’t take time off when he’s sick. Between coughing fits, he admits his work-life balance isn’t good. He asked that his surname not be used to avoid putting his job at risk. Federal and provincial governments have committed multiple billions of dollars to anchor AI infrastructure in Canada, courting...
The federal government is set to launch its new national artificial intelligence strategy soon -- but critics say it hasn't done enough to listen to Canadians and pollsters are warning that a skeptical public wants the government to put rules in place. "We see more of an inclination to want government to be a regulator of AI, to create the...
Nanos conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,009 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between November 29th and December 2nd, 2025, as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error for this survey is ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Canada's spy watchdog is examining the use and governance of artificial intelligence in national security activities. The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency has informed key federal ministers and organizations of the study, which will look at how the security community defines, uses and oversees aspects of AI technologies. Canadian security agencies have used AI for tasks ranging from translation...
The dire warnings about AI keep coming. Eric Schmidt, former chief executive of Google, says that within a few years, millions of independent AI agents working together “will develop their own language.” And “we won’t understand what they’re doing.” They will have escaped human control. The University of Montreal computer scientist and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio told The Guardian this...
Study found Canadians were more likely to be swayed than Americans. Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study. The study, which included 1,530 Canadians, also found that the chatbots had more success convincing Canadians to switch their votes than it did...
Several members of the government’s artificial intelligence task force say they are worried Ottawa has already fallen behind in the global race to capitalize on a burgeoning economic driver, but they believe the forthcoming AI strategy may provide an opportunity for Canada to catch up. Louis Têtu, executive chairman of the AI software multinational Coveo, said Canada has long suffered...
At the Paris AI Action Summit in February, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders watched as U.S. Vice President JD Vance took the stage to rail against AI regulation. Vance's speech -- delivered with his face projected on a large screen between the intricately-carved pillars lining the stage at the historic Grand Palais -- marked the beginning of...
At Wonder Valley, the giant data centre in northwestern Alberta backed by flamboyant investor Kevin O’Leary, the wonder is behind schedule. Announced as all but a sure thing in December 2024, construction was supposed to begin by 2026 with a first phase operating by 2027.
Microsoft Corp. MSFT-T will spend more than $7.5-billion in Canada over the next two years as part of a data-centre expansion, while vowing to keep data within Canadian borders and resist any orders to discontinue services to government customers that could arise during uncertain geopolitical times. The company’s president and vice-chair Brad Smith is in Ottawa Tuesday to meet with...
Artificial intelligence is likely to take up much of the agenda as industry, digital and technology ministers from the world’s most powerful Western countries meet in Montreal this week. The two-day event is part of a series of ministerial meetings being held as Canada holds the presidency of the G7 group of nations this year. Prime Minister Mark Carney hosted...
The federal government has launched a public registry to keep Canadians in the loop on its growing use of artificial intelligence. The registry lists more than 400 areas where AI is currently being explored, developed, implemented or deployed within the government, including early research projects and tools for operations and service delivery. A Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat news release...
