Prime Minister Mark Carney launched his AI strategy on Thursday, warning Canada’s slow adoption of the frontier technology had created risks and that domestic capacity needed a boost to avoid it being “weaponized against us.”
Reducing Canada’s reliance on the United States is a central part of Carney’s agenda, and his AI strategy nodded to concern about the influence of U.S. tech giants.
“We are highly dependent on foreign suppliers for the infrastructure that powers AI,” he said.
“That creates real risks that foreign entities could access Canadian data, deploy AI products that shape Canadian lives without reflecting our values,” he added, warning “AI could be weaponized against us.”
Carney’s office said Canada was one of the slowest G7 countries to adopt AI at scale, with the new plan aiming to improve AI literacy and ramp up adoption among Canadian businesses.
The prime minister also referenced Canadian company Cohere’s acquisition of German AI firm Aleph Alpha, which created a combined entity valued at around $20 billion with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin.
The Aleph Alpha deal, backed by both the Canadian and German governments, was designed to position Cohere as a sovereign alternative to the dominant U.S. AI companies.
“When we can’t build alone in Canada, we will partner with like-minded allies,” Carney said, mentioning Germany.
In response to Carney’s announcement, Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said it was crucial to “Canada has seen too many big ideas grow elsewhere.”
“AI should be where that changes.”
