Achi news desk-
The federal government will spend $2.4 billion to bolster access to critical artificial intelligence infrastructure, build local computing capacity and create safeguards against the potential downsides of AI technology, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Sunday.
The disclosure was the latest in a series of near-daily pre-budget announcements in which the government unveils its spending plans ahead of the release of the full federal budget on April 16.
Canada is home to some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence researchers, but in recent years the country has fallen behind in providing the necessary infrastructure for the growing field, especially the advanced computer chips essential to building and running artificial intelligence models. The change led many to call for further government intervention.
Although Mr. Trudeau offered few details in his announcement, which he made during a news conference in Montreal, many in the industry celebrated the promised investment. Others said past experience with government spending announcements left them skeptical of Ottawa’s ability to deliver on the new promises.
Money to build and make available more computing power will be the most significant part of the new expenses.
In a press release, the government said the $2 billion would be split between two new initiatives. One of them, the AI ​​Compute Access Fund, is designed to give “near-term support” to industry and researchers. The government did not provide further details, but one way to provide this support could be through relief Access to computing power of foreign technology giants. The other initiative, the AI ​​Sovereign Compute Canadian Strategy, aims to accelerate the development of Canadian-owned and located AI infrastructure.
“Access to computational power and capital are two of the biggest barriers to developing new models or applications of AI,” Mr. Trudeau said.
The government did not specify how much of the $2 billion would go to access and how much would go to building local computing power.
An official in the finance department told the “Globe and Mail” that the money will be invested over five years, and that more details will be published in next week’s budget. The Globe does not identify the official because they were not allowed to discuss detailed spending plans.
Mr. Trudeau’s AI spending announcement follows more than a week of other funding announcements in areas including child care and housing, totaling tens of billions of dollars in new federal borrowing and spending. Until the budget is released next week, it will be unclear how the new spending will affect the federal government’s bottom line.
Without taking into account the new spending announced so far, last year’s budget projected the federal deficit for 2024-2025 to be $35 billion. At his press conference, Mr. Trudeau was asked about his government’s spending and Conservative Leader Pierre Puillat’s call for the government to find a dollar of cuts for every new dollar spent.
“We invest responsibly,” said Mr. Trudeau, adding in French that “a secure country invests in itself, invests in its citizens, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today.”
The government’s news release said it will also spend $200 million to help accelerate AI adoption in critical sectors and help start-ups bring new AI technologies to market. Another $100 million will help small and medium-sized businesses expand and increase productivity through artificial intelligence, the government said, while another $50 million will provide new skills training for workers displaced by artificial intelligence.
An additional $50 million will create a new Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute, and $5.1 million will be set aside for the enforcement of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, legislation aimed at regulating artificial intelligence that was tabled in 2022 and has yet to pass the House of Representatives. of Commons.
The announcement was widely supported by one of the leaders in artificial intelligence research, Joshua Bengio, whose role in the development of the technology earned him (along with two others) the nickname “the godfather of artificial intelligence”. He is a professor at the University of Montreal, and the founder and scientific director of the Artificial Intelligence Institute of Quebec, called Milla. He was among the speakers at Mr. Trudeau’s announcement.
“The Canadian government is acting responsibly and putting itself on the right side of history with this announcement,” said Prof. Bengio.
Speaking in French, he said that such investments are critical for economic development and an essential tool for dealing with security and geopolitical challenges. Countries without artificial intelligence computing infrastructure risk being left behind, he said.
He also said the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, where he directs the machine learning and brains program, has been given the mandate to establish the safety institute. The scientific questions that the institute will deal with are existential and need to be understood, he said.
“How do we build future AI systems that may even surpass human intelligence, that are also safe? It won’t turn against humans? We don’t know how to do that,” said Prof. Bengio. “It is urgent to invest in it.”
Artificial intelligence systems require enormous computing power, and this need is expected to grow as the technology becomes more widespread and as new applications are developed for it.
Canada ranks fifth in the world for its AI capability, according to Turtle’s AI Global Index, which measures countries based on a variety of factors. But when ranked on AI infrastructure alone, Canada falls to 23rd.
Some experts said they weren’t I am convinced that Ottawa’s announcement will lead to a substantial improvement.
Jim Balsillie, former co-chief executive of BlackBerry Ltd, described the plans as a good idea. But he said the government “has not demonstrated the ability to plan or skillfully implement such investments”.
Others, including Own Innovation founder Jim Hinton, said they were concerned that the federal announcement did not address intellectual property issues related to artificial intelligence.
Mr. Hinton, whose office supports technology companies with intellectual property strategy, said he was skeptical about the future of the new initiative, given that past government innovation initiatives have been canceled or delayed.
“I’m afraid this is just another announcement without execution or substance,” he said. “Call me when there are results and competitive Canadian AI companies at scale, or more likely, call me when the program is wildly unsuccessful.”
The Conservative Party said in a statement that it did not believe the government was competent enough to carry out the announced plan.
With reporting by Sean Silkoff
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