Government must address important questions of data protection, natural resource stewardship and the distribution of benefits from digital technology
The long-awaited federal government strategy on AI just landed, with serious 2023 vibes.
The overdue document reads like a throwback to the media frenzy after ChatGPT’s public release in late 2022. The government’s strategy is centered on “AI for All,” framed around the idea that we must seize the moment to use the “best tools to build a prosperous future.”
For Canadians, the problem isn’t a lack of access to AI: the problem is already an inundation of AI in our lives, from chatbots to sensing cars to facial recognition technologies.
Canada’s 2026 AI strategy emphasizes adoption at a time when it’s clear that such a wholesale embrace of AI before appropriate governance has been devised is unwise, if not simply irresponsible. The strategy feels dated, wildly promoting something we’re not nearly as excited about as we once were.
We’ve been cautioned about the catastrophic robot destruction of humanity. We’ve come to see how AI is changing human labour, if not precisely in the ways we thought four years ago. We’ve learned about the problematic deployments of AI in our communities and in our social media feeds.
We know that AI hallucinates, can facilitate psychosis and was a contributor to the Tumbler Ridge tragedy. We’ve learned about the environmental costs of AI because of their excessive use of water and power.
Poll data show that most Canadians already have used AI, and that the responses to it have been mixed. Ipsos reports that, among 32 countries recently surveyed, we are among the least enthusiastic (and increasingly so) about AI.
The strategy recognizes that Canadians don’t trust AI. The government wants us to, by promising in two out of six pillars that Canadian democracy will be safeguarded and we will be empowered by AI.
But will we? The government has misunderstood the temper of the times.
Most striking – and telling – is the government’s plans for data about us. They are characterized as a “strategic national asset” in the strategy. But data about people are just that: they are about us. To date, we have largely been unwitting participants in this approach.
The AI strategy expresses very little about the government plans to steward all of that information about all of us responsibly.
What protections will be created for the data everyday Canadians create? How, and where, will those data be collected and used? This should be front and center for the Carney government, given the protests across the country against new data centres, from Vancouver, British Columbia to Olds, Alberta to Hamilton, Ontario and St. John, New Brunswick.
The strategy acknowledges the need for governance based on our values. Yet, those values are barely discussed. Safeguarding our democracy as a pillar rings hollow if democracy isn’t defined.
“Protecting Canadians and safeguarding our democracy” and “Empowering Canadians” are the first two pillars the strategy. Yet they seem also to be the least well-funded aspects of a $2.3 billion strategy.
The line items are important: more research on AI safety ($50 million), upskilling and job search ($80 million) and supporting creatives to use AI “on their own terms” ($50 million).
But the lion’s share of the proposal (approximately $2.1 billion) goes to the other pillars: supporting national AI champions and small and medium enterprise alike in their AI journeys, building sovereign AI capacity by beefing up on digital infrastructure, and trusted partnerships and alliances.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to see where the government’s commitment is on AI. Build, baby, build. But this imperative is based on outdated premises.
The government’s AI strategy hypes wholesale, national adoption, and that’s most of what the pillars develop. The strategy funds AI development, contending we will sustain the government’s vision of an innovative (and therefore stronger) Canada.
The question that remains is, when all the billions have been spent spreading AI across the country, how will those who live in this country fare? The strategy assumes the AI frothing will benefit all, but everyday headlines belie this 2023-infused optimism.
Will we really all be stronger at the end of all of this AI funding?
I think we know that’s a “no” already in 2026, unless the government steps up, does its job seriously by providing governance around all important questions of data, natural resource stewardship and the distribution of benefits from digital technology.
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