Mark Carney Launches AI Strategy, Citing Risks of Foreign Influence

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 “weaponised against us”.

Reducing Canada’s reliance on the US is a central part of Carney’s agenda, and his AI strategy nodded to concern about the influence of US 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 weaponised 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 US$20 billion with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin.