Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announces questionable national AI strategy

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney announces a questionable national AI strategy

The new “KI for all” plan prioritises the strengthening of data protection and the increasing introduction of AI.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a new AI strategy that will lead Canada's legislation and infrastructure investments over the next five years. While the new “KI for all” plan focuses a little more on the effects that technology will have on ordinary people than the similar framework of President Donald Trump for the USA, it is also about the growth of his country’s domestic AI industry, while the growing counterreaction is ignored.

“As the global AI market is expected to reach $8.8 trillion by 2033,” says the announcement that “Canada has a limited but real chance to ensure that AI works for all Canadians – to use this technology to create jobs, protect Canadians and strengthen our prosperity.” The plan aims to achieve these goals by strengthening the confidence of the Canadians in AI, increasing AI deployment and investing in the foundations of AI technology developed, hosted and operated in Canada.

AI for All calls for an update of the legal framework in order to “ensure the personal data of the Canadians, also against harmful practices such as deepfakes and surveillance prices” and the creation of a “online security system” to protect chatbot and social media users. The strategy also provides a plan to set up a National AI Literacy Initiative to offer free AI entry training, and undertakes to provide “each post-secondary student access to trusted AI agencies”. In addition to other advantages, Carney’s strategy will create “up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and internship opportunities”.

For Canadian companies, AI for All also calls for the construction of a “public AI supercomputer” and further investments in state – such as Canadian ownership and operating – computing and cloud infrastructure. These infrastructure investments are made in line with Canada's clean energy objectives and facilitates access to growth capital through public procurement.

While the complete strategy document recognises the scepticism of the Canadians to AI, it largely ignores evidence that the introduction of AI technologies does not necessarily increase productivity and that there is a growing tendency towards technology in general. Other laws to regulate AI tools seem to be necessary, but Carney's plan to increase AI deployment could focus on the wrong issue. AI for All points out that these problems are a question of communication and access. However, considering that tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude The fact that Canadians do not use KI enough, possibly due to problems with AI and what it produces, could not be due to their understanding of it.