Investing US$35.9 million over five years, Canada’s government is creating a new organization to help Canadians better understand this emerging technology. 

The Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute will work to make sure Canada develops and deploys AI in safe ways, as well as helping Canadians make sense of generative AI systems and protecting them against the associated risks. The government is working with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), which will partner with other research organizations across the country and consult with experts on AI-related topics.  

Canada is joining a growing number of countries that have formed AI safety bodies to ensure that the technology is developed in a manner that benefits people. The US, the UK and the EU are a few other regions where these kinds of organizations have emerged. 

François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and industry, is heading to San Francisco next week for the inaugural International Network of AI Safety Institutes. This event’s goal is to build a network and form a consensus on how AI should be managed around the world. 

At a press conference in Montreal this morning, a spokesperson for CIFAR noted that businesses are excited about AI, but also concerned about bias, misinformation and who will control powerful AI models. Another obstacle to the technology’s adoption in Canada is that people want to know there are safeguards in place. So a key part of CIFAR’s work with the Institute will be tackling problems like AI-generated disinformation and making sure the tech is integrated safely into high-risk fields like healthcare and banking. 

Its five-year budget for the Safety Institute is part of a much larger US$1.7-billion investment the Canadian government is making in AI. It plans to spend US$1.4 billion over the next five years (starting in 2024/2025) to launch the AI Compute Access Fund and Canadian AI Sovereign Compute Strategy, both of which will provide financial support to Canadian researchers, start-ups and scaling-up businesses working in the AI industry. 

The government has also earmarked US$71 million over five years to the National Research Council’s AI Assist Program, which is set up to help small- and medium-sized Canadian businesses and individuals build and launch AI-powered products. And it’s making US$35 million available over four years (starting in 2025/2026) to workers whose jobs are affected by AI. The government notes that the creative industries sector might be in need of support, and these funds will go towards providing skills training for those in disrupted jobs. 

In total, Canada has invested more than US$1.4 billion in AI since 2017, a commitment that makes its AI ecosystem “among the best in the world,” according to the federal government. In 2022/2023, there were more than 140,000 “AI professionals” working in Canada, up 29% from the year before. 

Image courtesy of Jason Hafso via Unsplash