Trudeau announced a $1.8 billion package to boost Canada’s AI sector
Canada is allocating $1.76 billion (C$2.4 billion) from its federal budget to grow the artificial intelligence (AI) sector and maintain the country's “competitive edge” in AI.
The government unveiled a new package of measures to “secure Canada's AI advantage,” including investing in AI-related startups, mid-sized businesses and research organizations.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on April 7 that “the rapid development of generative AI unlocks tremendous economic potential for Canada today, greatly improving productivity and reducing the amount of time workers spend on repetitive tasks.”
In Montreal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a $2.4-billion package from the upcoming federal budget to build capacity in artificial intelligence. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/AbNlOrX2kd
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) April 7, 2024
The package will support the nation's leading AI researchers and startups by leveraging $1.47 billion in computing capacity and other AI-related infrastructure through the nation's new AI Compute Access Fund.
Another $147 million will go to AI startups in the agriculture, clean tech, healthcare, and manufacturing industries, while $73.5 million will go to small and mid-sized AI scale companies to boost productivity.
“This will create better paying opportunities for each generation, increase innovation in the economy, increase productivity and accelerate economic growth.”
Trudeau said many advances in drug discovery, energy efficiency and housing innovation have been domestically powered by AI.
The fund will see up to $36.8 million in Canada's Sector Energy Solutions program to retrain and reskill workers in a variety of industries who could be impacted by the AI boom.
Workers in the film and animation industries are at risk of losing their jobs to generative AI, according to a recent report by consulting firm CVL Economics.
The remaining $36.8 million will be used to create the Canadian AI Safety Institute to promote the safe development and deployment of AI.
Canada claims to be the first country in the world to introduce a pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2017, which aims to put AI to work in research and business.
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According to statistics, the Canadian AI market is currently worth around $7.4 billion, while the US market is $106 billion.
As part of Canada's AI strategy, it has reportedly attempted to recruit several new AI firms from the EU.
One of Canada's leading AI startups is Tenstorrent, which last October partnered with South Korean manufacturing company Samsung to help “bring the next generation of AI chips to market.”
Tenstorrent closed a $100 million round of funding two months ago led by Samsung and automotive manufacturer Hyundai.
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