To meet our AI ambitions, we’ll need to lean upon Canada’s unique strengths
Mark Schaan (BA ’02)
Alum, Political Science
Faculty of Arts
> Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere — hailed as a revolution, feared as a disruption, but ultimately defined by how thoughtfully we choose to use it.
Amidst the hype, AI is used so ubiquitously that it’s almost a caricature. Media headlines have simultaneously overstated and underplayed the reality of both the threats and the opportunities AI poses. But AI is not a monolith, and we need to tackle it with nuance and care.
Canada started funding AI research more than 40 years ago with no guarantee that these discoveries would be a critical enabler in the future. So, while the AI race is frenetic, our country has been running it for decades with the long view that true progress is a marathon not a sprint.
Canada’s success in embracing an AI future will be predicated on our talent, research, sovereign infrastructure, responsible adoption and thoughtful policy. These facets must be championed and interwoven into our approach to enable AI innovation to scale while also building trust for widespread adoption.
One clear advantage for Canada is a post-secondary sector that rivals the world’s best and is at the core of our nation’s capacity in leading AI. It is through our universities and colleges that we helped make modern AI a reality for the world. Co-op students are not only gaining skills for testing and adopting AI, but they are supporting its evolution within enterprises and organizations as they bring new knowledge into the workplace.
Many of our AI startups and scaleups have roots at universities who incubated and accelerated their entrepreneurial and innovation journeys. Whether pushing the frontier of research, acting as an entry point for productivity gains, preparing talent or fuelling the next generation of firms, the post-secondary sector is a major part of the AI secret sauce in Canada.
As a Waterloo alum, I recognize the formative role the University played for me. Waterloo was where I cut my teeth on policy issues and where I learned the power of leadership. It is also where I learned the importance of building and being in community. This is a hidden underpinning of Waterloo’s success. The University’s reputation for bright individual minds in engineering, computer science or math is only half the story. The reality is that it’s interlinked with a mindset that reinforces community and drives ingenuity and entrepreneurship across a wide range of disciplines.
It is this community-building mindset that we need to embrace to meet our AI ambitions for Canada. The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, is known to say, “technology moves at the speed of innovation, but adoption moves at the speed of trust”. The critical role for government is to fuel public trust and understanding, while also taking the right policy steps to mitigate real risks.
Our nation has some of the brightest and most creative minds. We are educating and deploying the talent, advancing research that reinforces safety and creating policies to empower and build. A nuanced and considered strategy will ensure we have all the ingredients to position Canada to benefit enormously from AI adoption and leadership in the future.
