Canada's AI Potential

At the Milken Institute's Global Dialogues Toronto, held alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney's Canada Investment Summit, three Canadian leaders took up both questions on one stage. Aidan Gomez co-founded Cohere and was a co-author of the 2017 paper that introduced the transformer architecture underpinning today's large language models. Dave McKay leads RBC. Evan Solomon is Canada's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. Susan Li of Fox Business Network moderated. The conversation runs across three arguments. Gomez makes the case that regulation should be shaped by an independent third party rather than by the largest labs, and warns about incumbents using rules as a competitive moat. McKay describes a practical sovereignty problem: the most advanced security tooling is released selectively outside the United States, which he calls an unfair playing advantage with real cyber risk for institutions operating elsewhere. Solomon frames the government's position as a build right or build wrong option, and argues the test is whether society comes along. Gomez closes on the case for a democratic second rail in AI, with Cohere in Canada and Mistral in France as the two candidates. It is a compact view of where Canada's AI debate actually sits. 0:00 Canada's claim on the technology it built 0:16 Two kinds of uncertainty, one week in Toronto 1:11 Who should write the rules for frontier AI 1:46 Uneven access to the most advanced tools 3:38 Canada's position on AI safety 4:47 Development cycles are compressing 6:52 Will AI change more jobs than it creates? 8:41 Build right or build wrong 9:41 How modern AI was invented in Canada 11:58 The case for a democratic second rail 12:39 Final thoughts from the panel 14:42 What's next: geotech CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE: • Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn • Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn • For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.