AI strategy presents a ‘major opportunity’ but also a ‘major challenge’: expert

First at Five shares local reaction to the government’s new AI strategy – and what it means for Maritimers.

News of Ottawa’s AI strategy has garnered attention from coast to coast to coast.

“It’s both a major opportunity, but also a very big challenge,” says Frank Rudzic, a computer science professor at Dalhousie University.

Rudzic, who is also an AI chair for the Vector Institute Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), says the opportunity will present itself in various ways for Atlantic Canada.

“I think there’s an awful lot we can do with regards to oceans and ocean health and our particular kind of agriculture,” he says. “Possibly, uses of AI in national sovereignty and national defence, which Atlantic Canada has a huge stake in.”

He predicts it is “somewhat likely that AI is going to, potentially, be a part of almost any job.”

The strategy, dubbed AI for All, vows to boost AI among businesses, from 12 to 60 per cent by 2034.

The government is also pledging to build a world-leading supercomputer to boost sovereign infrastructure by 2031 and provide all Canadians with access to free AI literacy training.

The strategy explicitly pledges to help create 250,000 jobs by 2031 and generate an additional $200 billion of economic growth.

Digital Nova Scotia, the industry association for the province’s tech sector, says the strategy sounds great, but details around its implementation are needed.

“Will businesses be able to adopt AI in a way that increases productivity?” asks CEO Owen Sagness. “Will we be able to see the job gains that have been promised?”

He predicts some jobs will be eliminated in the future, but that others will be gained.

“The beauty of what the strategy is,” he says, “[Ottawa is] also addressing mid-career and retraining people that are in mid-career.

“In some way, those folks are very valuable because they’ve got domain knowledge in an industry that could be married with AI knowledge to make those people even more valuable.”

Nonetheless, he says the AI transformation is a must.

“The train has left the station when it comes to AI,” Sagness says. “The world is going AI.

“It’s being used very, very broadly. Canada is behind the curve.”

He says that’s why the country needs to be “on the leading edge of AI adoption” if we’re going to improve productivity and create new jobs.”

But with so much potential, comes so much risk, warns cybersecurity expert David Shipley.

“I was disappointed that a lot of the talk about how we’re going to improve safety and privacy for Canadians remains just that: talk,” says the Beauceron Security CEO.

Especially, he says, given Canada’s “terrible track record” on holding tech companies to account and preventing harms to Canadians.

In perhaps the most severe case, Shipley says Canadians deserve to know what ChatGPT told the Tumbler Ridge killer.

“We deserve to see that chat transcript,” he says. “We can’t talk about the harms of these tools until we actually see what was said.”

-With a file from Stephanie Ha