Canada's A.I. Potential

At the Milken Institute's Global Dialogues Toronto, held alongside Prime Minister MarkCarney's Canada Investment Summit, three Canadian leaders took up both questions on onestage. Aidan Gomez co-founded Cohere and was a co-author of the 2017 paper that introducedthe transformer architecture underpinning today's large language models. Dave McKay leadsRBC. Evan Solomon is Canada's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and DigitalInnovation. Susan Li of Fox Business Network moderated.The conversation runs across three arguments. Gomez makes the case that regulation should beshaped by an independent third party rather than by the largest labs, and warns aboutincumbents using rules as a competitive moat. McKay describes a practical sovereigntyproblem: the most advanced security tooling is released selectively outside the UnitedStates, which he calls an unfair playing advantage with real cyber risk for institutionsoperating elsewhere. Solomon frames the government's position as a build right or build wrong option,and argues the test is whether society comes along.Gomez closes on the case for a democratic second rail in AI, with Cohere in Canada andMistral in France as the two candidates. It is a compact view of where Canada's AI debateactually sits.0:00   Canada's claim on the technology it built0:16   Two kinds of uncertainty, one week in Toronto1:11   Who should write the rules for frontier AI1:46   Uneven access to the most advanced tools3:38   Canada's position on AI safety4:47   Development cycles are compressing6:52   Will AI change more jobs than it creates?8:41   Build right or build wrong9:41   How modern AI was invented in Canada11:58  The case for a democratic second rail12:39  Final thoughts from the panel14:42  What's next: geotech CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE:• Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn• Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn• For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.