Canada’s AI minister to Big Tech: “We Won’t be a Digital Colony’

“AI for All.” That’s what Canada’s federal government is calling its national AI strategy. It makes the case for building AI with confidence: a homegrown supercomputer by 2031, 60 per cent adoption by 2034. But the new strategy offers little about how it will govern the technology.  Ottawa attempted to answer those concerns with two landmark bills: the Safe Social Media Act, which regulates social media platforms and AI chatbots, and the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act, which brings Canada’s privacy laws into the AI era. Together, these bills give the country something it’s never had: a single digital regulator with power to hold companies responsible.  It’s the most ambitious tech policy move this country has seen. And it’s drawing fire from every direction. Critics say a superregulator gives too much power to the government, that privacy and data should be treated separately, and that this is part of a wider government effort to control speech. To dig into the details, we sat down with Evan Solomon, Canada’s first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and the architect of this agenda. We talk about why data means something new in the age of AI, how this regulator would actually work, and whether it could have stopped something like Grok’s controversial nudification feature – a case the current Privacy Commissioner says he’s powerless to stop. Mentioned: Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All Backgrounder: Government of Canada introduces legislation to Protect Canadians’ Privacy in the Digital Age Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act Elon Musk's Grok AI tool under fire over digital undressing Canada’s privacy commissioner expands investigation into ‘X’ over ‘Grok’ Yes, Musk's Grok chatbot is 'digitally undressing' women and children • FRANCE 24 English Privacy Commissioner of Canada investigation into the Grok chatbot and sexualized deepfakes finds companies violated privacy law Commissioner-initiated complaints concerning X Corp.’s and X.AI LLC’s compliance with PIPEDA Canada has access to Anthropic’s powerful Mythos AI model, minister says Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.