Time to capitalize on Canada’s big AI advantage

Canada is a global leader in artificial intelligence because of decades of work by world-class luminaries at universities and government labs. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have worked hard to further AI research and development. I successfully exited two AI startups in Canada and hold 48 patents in AI related to messaging and security. My startups were never venture-backed, but benefited from the scientific research and experimental development tax incentive program and Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC), which provided us with a first sale to government and allowed us speedier exports to the U.S. The National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program also funded some research and development and internships. The successful 2017 Pan-Canadian AI Strategy initially earmarked $125-million, and its renewal in 2021 with $443-million emphasizes AI commercialization, intellectual property protection, talent, and AI ethics. These are good areas of focus, but fostering AI entrepreneurship is also a key area. SMEs are targeted with a slice of the $185-million for commercialization, including AI procurement strategies, “democratic” capital to increase diversity and government equity positions, according to a September 2021 Information and Communications Technology Council report. This is not a bad list—if SMEs can be funded quickly without the typical 30 per cent overhead that reduces direct funding. I also doubt that venture or angel investors would celebrate governments taking SME equity. Canada has not reached a plateau in AI research, but is instead a forefront contributor. Slowing those efforts will simply reduce us to a second-class global citizen in critical technology. AI is permeated in everything we do, whether it’s data analytics, bioinformatics, automation, communication, or fintech. We have excelled in analytics and there are excellent advances in vision, but to truly advance AI to its promise in science fiction, we need to marry it strongly with robotics and advance in synthetics to get to the point of having AI walking around and assisting people day to day. Japan and the U.S. have advanced considerably, and we need to partner to garner benefits for our aging population. I can envision a day, in the next decade or two, where I will get at least one intelligent synthetic helping me. However, security and privacy are two areas that must be better addressed. With this innovation comes advances in automated and connected vehicles, including cars, buses, and trucks. Companies like Tesla, Ford, and BMW are making incredible advances in this field, while Google, Apple, and Blackberry have been in a race for some time for automated vehicle software dominance. Canada needs to leverage AI and 5G to connected-vehicle technology and advance its national infrastructure to support connected vehicles, which have been shown to be safer to operate in a hybrid mode than those with only a human operator. This future is here, and Canada's infrastructure needs to adapt fast. We need intelligent highways that work in conjunction with connected and automated vehicles to be standardized quickly. This is where Canadian cities can partner with the carriers to ensure that 5G is rolled out with the needed infrastructure support, with the necessary licensing required by the CRTC. Wireless carriers in Canada are already deploying 5G. The ENCQOR consortium, which includes large telecom companies in partnership with government, has been an excellent example of fostering SMEs to leverage 5G. This $400-million consortium includes federal, Quebec, and Ontario funding is up for renewal and was successful in getting 1,000 SMEs engaged over the last five years. ENCQOR’s second phase should include a major AI track and expand across Canada since more provinces would like to participate—with a simpler application process for SMEs. We need a consortium for artificial intelligence SMEs like ENCQOR. It is not clear to me that Canadian private high-tech consortium Scale AI, with investments of $230-million from the federal government and $53-million from Quebec for large projects, has a strong SME focus. SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy and each of the Scale AI projects should aim to have several SME partnerships. At a minimum, its projects should cross over with ENCQOR. Dr. Suhayya (Sue) Abu-Hakima is the co-founder and CEO of Alstari Corporation, her third and most recent AI tech startup. The Hill Times