Canada to invest $2.4 billion in AI sector

Divya Sinha: Senior Reporter

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on April 7 that Canada will allot $2.4 billion in the upcoming Budget 2024 into the artificial intelligence sector.

“This investment aims to accelerate job growth in Canada’s AI sector and enhance productivity by helping researchers and businesses develop and adopt AI,” Trudeau said.

The media release stated that $2 billion will be allocated towards building and providing access to computing capabilities and technological infrastructure.

An additional $200 million will support AI start-ups, particularly in sectors like agriculture, health care and clean technology, the release said.

“AI has the potential to transform the economy. And our potential lies in capitalizing on the undeniable Canadian advantage,” Trudeau said.

He said this funding aims to harness the full potential of AI by providing Canadians to access good-paying jobs while increasing productivity, and growing the economy.

Aniket Sengar, a business analyst at Scotiabank, said AL will significantly impact the job market and its future trends.

“Slowly and steadily, AI is becoming more involved in IT, and it has both pros and cons,” Sengar said.

“AI products that are delivered to the market will have fewer defects, as AI will be giving an additional hand to test the product before it gets delivered to the market,” he said.

“However, on the other side of the pond, most of the things will get automated” and there will be fewer manual IT jobs, Sengar said.

“Anybody who is planning to get into IT or these kinds of jobs, technical jobs, has to have the know-how of how they and artificial intelligence work,” he said.

Sengar said AI will soon be involved in every aspect of our life.

“Every day from the moment you wake up, take your brush, till the time you sleep. Everywhere. AI is everywhere nowadays, it’s just that it will be more and more advanced,” he said.

“With this kind of investment from the government, I believe Canada is heading for a quicker way of advancing the economy and increasing the jobs in the future,” Sengar said.

However, he said jobs would be affected shortly, meaning the market would take its time to adapt to AI.

Katherine Cuplinskas, senior communications spokesperson for Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and deputy prime minister, told Humber News the investment in AI is absolutely central to the economic plan to unlock the promise of Canada for young Canadians.

“Because to become more prosperous, we as a country need to become more productive. And AI is a powerful tool to do just that,” she said.

Cuplinskas emphasized the significance of this investment in addressing productivity challenges while leveraging Canada’s existing strengths in AI.

She said the main renewed focus is unlocking the door to the middle class for millions of younger Canadians.

“In all we do, we dedicate ourselves to making a better life within reach for our younger generations,” she said.