Solomon says Canada must keep quantum industry and IP in Canada at CDL Super Session talk.<\/p>\n
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During a private CEO lunch yesterday at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Super Session, Minister of Artificial Intelligence<\/a> (AI) and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon said the Government of Canada plans to provide more targeted support to the country\u2019s AI and quantum computing companies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t run a sprinkler system on innovation,\u201d Solomon argued, eliciting applause from a room full of Canadian technology leaders. \u201cWe need to be competitive on the world stage.\u201d To do that, Solomon said Canada needs to \u201cchampion\u201d its AI winners and help them grow.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is not fashion. It is not FOMO. It is a necessity to grow.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n At Toronto Tech Week, Solomon has been sharing more insight into how the Liberals plan to regulate and support the country\u2019s AI and quantum sectors. He unpacked that vision in greater detail at CDL and in a follow-up interview with BetaKit.<\/p>\n Solomon\u2019s tour continued today. At MaRS Discovery District, he announced that applications for the $300-million CAD AI Compute Access Fund<\/a> (part of the $2-billion package<\/a> the previous Liberal government committed to expanding Canadian businesses\u2019 access to AI computing power) are now open. At the Vector Institute, Solomon disclosed that the feds are investing $3.5 million to help Vector deliver a healthcare AI initiative that will provide startups and scaleups with training, mentorship, and other support.<\/p>\n Scaling Canada\u2019s AI winners is just one of Solomon\u2019s priorities. Some of the other items on his to-do list include boosting AI adoption<\/a>, increasing trust, building sovereign data centres to power the tech, and figuring out how best to regulate it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t abandon risk mitigation \u2026 but we have to also not choke off our innovators and make sure that you have a framework to innovate,\u201d Solomon told CDL CEO lunch attendees, echoing his recent remarks<\/a> expressing concern about overdoing regulation.<\/p>\n As to what that might look like, Solomon told BetaKit that Canada\u2019s current Liberal government is not planning to revive the previously proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), introduced as part of Bill C-27, but said the feds are considering which aspects of AIDA to carry forward as they develop an updated regulatory framework for AI.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not going to just repeat what happened,\u201d Solomon said, stressing that Canada needs \u201clight, tight, [and] right\u201d AI regulation going forward.<\/p>\n Solomon confirmed to BetaKit that this framework will include rules as to how copyright will apply to AI. He said \u201cthe principle of protecting our cultural sovereignty and our cultural creators\u201d is \u201cfoundational\u201d to this government.<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/strong>AI minister Evan Solomon wary of overdoing regulation but says Bill C-27 \u201cnot gone\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Speaking more generally about why Canada needs to retain its intellectual property (IP) during his remarks at CDL, Solomon described losing IP as like \u201cgiving away oil,\u201d adding that Canada doesn\u2019t want to be the\u00a0 \u201cfarm system to other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n On the AI copyright front, Solomon told BetaKit the feds are waiting to see how ongoing legal matters associated with this conclude before making any final decisions. \u201cThe big issue for us is these court cases have to play out so we can figure out what the market signal on compensation might be, and so we want to be in step with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In light of the United States (US) Department of Defense\u2019s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative program<\/a> and the threat of losing quantum companies to the US, Solomon confirmed that Ottawa also plans to introduce new policies to help keep these firms in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cA matter of national priority for us is making sure that our robust and global-leading quantum industries remain robust and Canadian, including the IP, the headquarters, and the innovation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are working on a process to make sure that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon expects that part of Canada\u2019s increased defence spending will go towards supporting Canadian AI and quantum computing companies developing dual-use technologies. He argued to BetaKit that sovereign computing capacity and data, and cybersecurity, quantum, and AI capabilities are \u201cnot just an economic imperative, but a national security imperative as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n