Last Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an ambitious C$2.4-billion investment to “secure Canada’s AI advantage,” with the bulk of the funding to enhance computing capabilities and build technological infrastructure for researchers.
Deep-tech expert and APF Canada board member, Melissa Chee, told Asia Watch that securing compute capacity is “one of the most critical issues facing the global AI community,” and that Sunday’s announcement is “a positive step in the right direction” if Canada is to retain its competitive advantage, ensure its AI sovereignty, and continue attracting world-class talent.
Turning data into dollars
Canada, Japan, and South Korea tied for first in the latest ‘AI and Democratic Values Index’ published by the Center for AI and Digital Policy, an independent American research organization. The index — produced by 500 AI experts across almost 90 countries — assesses progress toward “trustworthy AI” and national AI policies and practices.
Canada's AI leadership is well-documented: the country wielded a ‘first-mover advantage’ as one of the first nations to create an AI strategy in 2017, and Canada’s research capabilities — concentrated in Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton — are seen as top-drawer. But Canada has come up short in translating major research advances into competitive commercial products.
According to Stanford University’s most recent AI Index Report, the U.S. leads the world in terms of total private investment into AI. In 2022, the US$47.4 billion invested in the U.S. dwarfed the US$13.4 billion invested in China, the next-highest recipient. Canada landed in the eighth spot, with US$1.83 billion invested. APF Canada’s Chee says that, for Canada to remain at the forefront of AI, building a domestic pipeline of IP-rich companies operating at scale while continuing to attract investment from global industry leaders will be crucial.
No shortage of programming partners for Canada
Ottawa has also earmarked C$50 million to establish an AI Safety Institute, following in the footsteps of the U.K., that will focus on understanding and protecting against “the risks of advanced or nefarious AI systems.”
Canada routinely collaborates with Indo-Pacific partners on AI. Just last month, Canada’s embassy in South Korea hosted a symposium on the ethical use of AI — an important precursor discussion to the (much larger) AI Safety Summit hosted by South Korea in May.
