Last week’s G7 leaders’ meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, was a chance for the Western world leaders to gather in the Rockies, breathe in some fresh mountain air, and set the course for their countries’ shared futures. All told, the leaders released six joint statements on several pressing issues, from securing critical mineral supply chains to combating foreign interference to countering migrant smuggling.
Unsurprisingly, there was also particular focus given to a new, rapidly transformative topic: artificial intelligence.
Those worried the leaders might lean all the way into AI doomerism can be comforted. The statement emphasized the need to recognize AI’s potential in growing prosperity, driving innovation, and increasing efficiency and competitiveness, while recognizing that AI itself must safeguard against harms.
It’s a message that reflects the new Liberal government’s initial approach to the technology. So far, Prime Minister Mark Carney has prioritized the file, even appointing former political broadcaster and star Toronto Centre candidate Evan Solomon as Canada’s first-ever minister for AI and digital innovation.
What Solomon knows about AI is an open question, but the portfolio itself is a more encouraging signal: Carney recognizes that, as other economic indicators falter, proactive AI policy is one critical key to Canadian prosperity and influence in a world racing to harness this new technological power.
Solomon’s appointment is a relatively watershed moment for how global governments approach AI policy. While nine OECD members have digital ministers, only Spain, the U.K., and France have a dedicated AI minister. Canadas’ is the first with senior cabinet status. Perhaps this renewed focus can recapture the AI momentum the country has lost.
Canada is falling behind
Though Canada has had historical significance in AI—as home to two of its three “godfathers”—our global ranking has slipped from fourth in 2021 to eighth today. After a decade of economic stagnation, Solomon’s appointment is an opportunity for Canada to again lead the world in using innovative AI—provided the ministry gets its focus and framework right.
Graphic credit: Janice Nelson.
His recent comments at the Canada 2020 conference were promising, discussing AI as a mechanism to improve the economy by investing in research, protecting Canadian IP, and supporting commercialization at home, rather than using his ministry to overregulate.It’s a premise other nations have utilized to compensate for otherwise middling growth. After COVID-19, South Korea’s Digital New Deal boosted economic growth, creating 100,000 new jobs and improving AI readiness by 19 points globally. Japan’s Society 5.0 plan likewise accelerated AI investment, which revitalized manufacturing, eased physician shortages through telemedicine (something Canada could follow with our strained health care), and has the potential to add a further $1.1 trillion USD to its productive capacity.
The mandate
Canada’s fall in its AI capability ranking reflects two major factors. The first is our relative lack of reliability and scale of infrastructure that powers AI, and the second is a poor operating environment. These are gaps Solomon’s ministry must plug instead of funding scattershot initiatives.
Infrastructure is perhaps easier to solve for the government. Swiftly deploying the $1 billion earmarked for AI supercomputing infrastructure is non-negotiable as an initial step, with funding ideally even expanded as a national AI compute cloud accessible to universities and startups. And Carney’s emphasis on building Canadian-owned data centres is already an indicator of optimism; it may even be a much-needed bridge to his loudest provincial foe, Danielle Smith, who has touted cold-weather Alberta as an ideal home for these centres.
Like Solomon mentioned, Canada must drive AI adoption and commercialization across the economy. This can be achieved by supporting businesses in integrating AI through targeted tax credits and commercialization-linked research grants. We should especially prioritize SMEs and startups, incentivizing their national growth via targeted funding, procurement opportunities, and taxing foreign buyers to protect Canadian IP going abroad, similar to Israel.
Holistically, the government must strike a middle ground between the heavy-handed regulation of Europe and the reckless building of AI agents without regard for social consequences in the United States. There are legitimate concerns that Canada will have to choose between the two, which would respectively either bleed more talent and worsen our standing or create long-term harms.
Canada could instead mass invest in godfather Yoshua Bengio’s “scientist AI”—developing benevolent systems that act as guardrails to agentic AI. Can Solomon define the paradigm to incentivize this investment and progress safe AI as the preferred intellectual challenge for researchers? Pairing this with Canada’s pioneering “smaller, leaner models” vision may position us at the frontier.
Carney’s close U.K. ties will be priceless, as the country ranks fourth in both overall AI capability and its operating environment. The U.K. is adaptive, relying on existing bodies to oversee AI and planning to legislate only as needed. They’ve demarcated AI safety from regulation, as reflected in its creation of an AI Safety Institute and the launch of the inaugural global AI Safety Summit in 2023. If Solomon emulates these moves, our nascent innovation core may get the boost it requires to build the future of AI at home, while still being unyielding in our values.
The safeguarding of Canadian jobs amidst rapid technological disruptions should also be a central component of Solomon’s mandate. With roughly one in four Canadian jobs at high risk of automation, AI will inevitably displace some work. But it can also boost productivity gains if the government proactively flags emerging displacement trends.
Canada can look globally in facilitating mass upskilling and proactive worker transitions. Singapore’s SkillsFuture initiative—granting adults annual training credits—helped them redeploy 1,600 high-risk employees in new positions over three years before layoffs hit. Solomon could do the same alongside K-12 literacy training. He could even introduce an AI transition fund, financed by automation’s highest corporate beneficiaries, easing the social costs of workforce disruption and potentially even generating fiscal windfalls to help balance the books.
Pitfalls
Something Solomon shouldn’t do? Turning this into a maple-flavoured ministry of truth. Carney’s hinted revival of the Online Harms Act raises concerns that this ministry may expand the policing of free expression via content controls more scalable than manual CRTC takedowns or force developers to exclude training data that they deem as “misinformation.” This temptation must be rejected if the government hopes to harness the full potential of AI economically.
Overall, if Carney is able to leverage Canada’s latent AI potential, the narrative in this country can begin to shift from stagnation and mediocrity to a genuine leading global economy once again.
