Canada has a new group of experts to advise its government on artificial intelligence. On Friday, Oct. 2, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched the Prime Minister's National Council on Artificial Intelligence, which his office says will give "independent, practical advice on Canada's AI transformation." Its 13 members include Yoshua Bengio, the Montreal computer scientist often called one of the godfathers of AI, who said in an interview last month that the world is "losing control" of AI and needs rules to rein it in.
The council will advise on AI for All, the national AI strategy Canada launched in June. Carney's office says members will advise on getting AI into wider use across Canada, growing large Canadian AI companies and making sure Canada controls the key AI technology it relies on, as well as on making AI safer, protecting democracy and making sure all Canadians benefit. The government says the strategy is meant to add $200 billion (Canadian) to the economy and create 250,000 AI-related jobs over the next five years. Those are targets, not results.
The members mix researchers, business leaders and public servants: 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 sitting as a member by virtue of his job. Pisano runs Mila, one of Canada's national AI institutes, and Pichette heads Digital Transformation Canada, a new federal agency that modernizes government services. Pitfield, appointed to the Senate in July, was previously one of Carney's top advisers. Bengio's company, LawZero, which is building an AI model designed to be safe from the start, received $150 million in federal funding in September.
The council advises; it does not decide. A small team in the Privy Council Office, the department that supports the prime minister and cabinet, will run it, and Carney's office says the responsible ministers and departments stay accountable for policy decisions and for carrying them out. In a statement, Carney said the council will advise "how to manage the risks, seize the opportunities, and ensure AI is used to improve the lives of all Canadians."
The government has not said how often the council will meet, whether its advice will be published, what it will cost or when it will first report. It is also not yet clear how the council will weigh safety against the strategy's push for faster growth.