AI Push
Carney unveils National AI Council to guide Canada's push for tech sovereignty and 250,000 new jobs
Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday the creation of a Prime Minister's National Council on Artificial Intelligence, tapping researchers, entrepreneurs and investors to advise the government on adopting AI while protecting Canada's sovereignty over the technology.
The 13-member council will advise on the rollout of AI for All, the national AI strategy Canada launched in June, including how to accelerate AI adoption, build domestic champions and strengthen sovereign AI infrastructure.
Carney said the panel would help the government manage the risks and opportunities of the technology as it reshapes the economy.
"Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms," Carney said.
"The new National Council on Artificial Intelligence will inform and advise the government on how to most effectively deploy AI in Canada, how to manage the risks, seize the opportunities, and ensure AI is used to improve the lives of all Canadians."
The council's members include Ajay Agrawal, Yoshua Bengio, Sanja Fidler, John Graham, Gillian Hadfield, Jordan Jacobs, Eric Lamarre, Valérie Pisano, Senator Thomas Pitfield, Jody Thomas, Louis Vachon and Michelle Zatlyn, with Patrick Pichette serving ex officio. Bengio, a University of Montreal professor, is among the world's most cited AI researchers and a leading voice on AI safety; Zatlyn co-founded the cybersecurity firm Cloudflare.
According to the government, the council will be supported by a small secretariat within the Privy Council Office, though individual ministers and departments will remain responsible for policy decisions and implementation.
Its mandate spans economic competitiveness, government use of AI, talent development, research and sovereign infrastructure.
The AI for All strategy, unveiled in June, sets a target of adding $200 billion to the economy and creating 250,000 AI-related jobs over five years, while raising AI adoption among Canadian businesses from just over 12 per cent to 60 per cent by 2034.
The plan also calls for up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placements for young Canadians. Ottawa has already moved on a related front, launching Digital Transformation Canada last month to modernize government service delivery and use federal procurement to help Canadian AI firms scale.
The government points to AI already in use across sectors such as health care diagnostics, precision agriculture and transportation logistics as evidence of the technology's reach, and says the strategy is meant to ensure those gains extend to workers and businesses more broadly, not just large firms already investing in the technology.
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