The Liberals aim to use the new spending to help “maintain Canada’s competitiveness” in AI.
Canada’s Liberal government today announced a C$2.4 billion package of measures aimed at revitalizing the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
In a statement, the Canadian government noted that while Canada has a “world-leading AI ecosystem,” other countries are also racing to catch up and investing heavily in AI. “To maintain Canada’s competitiveness and ensure good-paying jobs and job security for generations of young Canadians, we must raise standards.”
The Canadian government will spend $2 billion through its upcoming 2024 budget to increase computing power available to the country’s AI researchers, startups, and scale-ups.
The federal government will help fund these groups’ short-term processing needs through the new AI Computing Access Fund. The Liberals also said they would develop Canada’s AI Sovereign Computing Strategy, which aims to expand the country’s AI capabilities over the long term – the amount of AI infrastructure that Canada owns and installs.
The Government of Canada will also commit an additional $400 million to help AI startups bring new technologies to market, accelerate AI adoption in critical sectors and small and medium-sized businesses, and fund the creation of a new Canadian AI Safety Institute. and committed to providing support to affected workers. Strengthen enforcement of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), which is part of Bill C-27.
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Featured image courtesy of Flickr.
