Canada wants to confirm itself as a leading country in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) thanks to a package of measures worth 2.4 billion Canadian dollars (€1.6 billion) in the new State budget. The AI sector is one of Canada’s main drivers of productivity, innovation and economic growth, fostered by a traditional focus on this technology and the presence of a solid ecosystem, which enjoys good synergies between the public and private sectors. In 2023 there were more than 140,000 actively engaged AI professionals in Canada (a 29% increase from the previous year). Approximately 10 per cent of the world’s high-profile researchers operating in this technology is in Canada, which also boasts the first place globally for annual growth in women employed in the sector.
In this regard, the Canadian government has announced it intends to further strengthen critical AI infrastructure to attract more international capital and talents, as well as enable local companies to compete globally. Public investment will initially be used to accelerate job growth in the AI sector and in other sectors, too, as well as to increase scholars’ and companies’ productivity. The most significant portion of the resources – approximately 2 billion Canadian dollars – will be allocated to building and providing access to computing capabilities and technological infrastructure for Canadian researchers, start-ups and scale-ups. To this end, an AI Compute Access Fund will be established to provide short-term support to both research centres and industry.
Furthermore, around 200 million Canadian dollars will be dedicated to promoting AI start-ups in strategic sectors such as agriculture, clean technology, healthcare and manufacturing. Further 100 million dollars will help small and medium-sized enterprises increase their productivity through the development of new artificial intelligence solutions, while 50 million dollars will go to support workers in the sectors most affected by this phenomenon, mainly by funding training.
A new Canadian AI Safety Institute will also be created to foster the development and safe deployment and spreading of this technology. The Institute will help Canada protect itself from the risks of AI systems. In the meantime, the debate on the industry legislation, namely the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), is still ongoing and the law is unlikely to be adopted before 2025.
