Image: Gillian Hadfield
Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched the Prime Minister’s National Council on Artificial Intelligence to provide independent, practical advice on Canada’s AI transformation and on implementing and evolving the federal government’s AI for All strategy.
The council brings together public- and private-sector participants to advise the government on accelerating AI adoption, fostering national champions and building sovereign AI infrastructure. It will also advise on AI safety, protecting democracy and ensuring Canadians benefit from the technology.
Among the council’s members is Gillian K. Hadfield, a law professor and artificial intelligence governance scholar whose research focuses on innovative design for legal, regulatory, and technical systems for AI, computational models of human normative systems, and building AI systems that understand and respond to human values and norms
Hadfield is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance at the School of Government and Policy and the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She is a visiting faculty researcher (part-time) in the Paradigms of Intelligence Group at Google, a faculty member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. She is also a Schmidt Sciences AI2050 senior fellow.
She previously served as a senior policy advisor for OpenAI from 2018 to 2023. Hadfield was also the inaugural director and held the Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society at the University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
According to the Prime Minister, the council will convene researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, public servants and international experts, including specialists in AI safety, governance and oversight. Other council members include Ajay Agrawal, Yoshua Bengio, Sanja Fidler, Jordan Jacobs, Eric Lamarre, Valérie Pisano, Senator Thomas Pitfield, Jody Thomas, Louis Vachon and Michelle Zatlyn. Patrick Pichette will serve as an ex officio member.
A small team within the Privy Council Office will support the AI council. Responsible ministers and federal departments will remain accountable for policy decisions and implementation.
The government launched AI for All in June around three objectives: building trust in AI, expanding opportunities for Canadians and strengthening Canadian control over critical AI capabilities.
The strategy targets an additional $200 billion in economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years. It also seeks to increase AI adoption from just over 12 percent to 60 percent by 2034 and provide up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work-placement opportunities for young Canadians.
Carney said the new council will advise the government on how to deploy AI in Canada, manage its risks and pursue opportunities while using the technology to improve Canadians’ lives.