Canada is investing $150M to make AI safer. Will it work?

Yoshua Bengio, right, speaks at an AI conference in Montreal as Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, left, and his German counterpart Karsten Wildberger look on. Canada and Germany are together investing hundreds of millions of dollars into technology being developed by Bengio's AI lab LawZero. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)Social SharingLeft unchecked, artificial intelligence could kill us all — that's the stark warning one of the godfathers of the technology, Yoshua Bengio, has been repeating for years. 

On Wednesday, standing next to representatives of the Canadian and German governments, they together announced over a quarter billion dollars to help the Canadian AI researcher fight that threat.

Bengio is trying to create a new kind of AI model. The model, called Scientist AI, is being developed to be safe by design: to focus purely on objective truths and understand facts without pursuing goals of its own — like pleasing its human user. It could also act as a guardrail for other AI models. 

The federal government is investing $150 million in LawZero, the Montreal-based non-profit launched by Bengio last year to build models like Scientist AI. It's the first time that federal funding has gone to the company. Germany is providing an additional 100 million euros.

"I'm doing this with the urgency that I feel in my bones, because I want my children and my grandchildren to have a future," said Bengio at the All In conference, a major gathering of AI leaders in Montreal this week. 

Concerns over AI's risks have been mounting, reaching a fever pitch after an outgoing researcher at Anthropic — one of the AI firms considered to be at the forefront of the technology — warned there is a chance AI could wipe out humanity in the next decade. 

In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney also called for a global, non-industry body to oversee and mitigate the technology's risks.

Read more about LawZero: Can AI safeguard us against AI? One of its Canadian pioneers thinks so

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Soloman says the investment in LawZero is part of Canada's larger push for responsible AI development.

"We are here today not because we are responding to yesterday's headline, but because we are responding to the philosophic position that we have taken, which is to build responsibly and safely," he said.

In many ways, the genie is already out of the bottle, say experts: it will be hugely challenging to curb dangers such as AI hallucinating and spreading misinformation, or taking actions without explicit human permission.

"There's no silver bullet to this problem right now. We have very powerful, even transformative, AI systems," said Jaxson Khan, an expert in AI policy and adoption at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs.

American and Chinese firms operate incredibly powerful AI systems, a trend he says is likely to continue.

"Canada's at this moment where we're feeling like perhaps, in the context of AI, we don't have a lot of control," he said.

But teaming up with Germany to invest in LawZero is still meaningful, Khan says. 

"You have to be able to develop alternatives that ideally are safer by design," he said.

"I'm curious to see if that will work, but I do think it's a worthwhile investment from the government and a good partnership with Germany."

Another important piece of the puzzle, experts say, is partnering with countries that have similar goals and values. 

The announcement came hours after two AI companies, Canada's Cohere and Germany's Aleph Alpha, signed a merger agreement.

"This is arguably capacity building," says Vass Bednar, the managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute think-tank, of the merger.

One of the world's biggest AI companies wants a deal with Canada. Is sovereignty the trade-off?

"We do have capacity to catch up and build alternatives. We also have to believe that," she said.

"We can't ... fall victim to the inevitability of the technology or its harms."

Taking a multipronged approach could make a difference, says Khan. 

Bengio says giving up isn't an option.

"It won't be easy to achieve our goals," he said. "But if we can change the world even by nudging it a little bit towards a better world for humans, we have to try. "

Jennifer Yoon covers the latest national and international news for CBC News on television, radio and digital. You can reach her at jennifer.yoon@cbc.ca.