2026 Jun 05
- Magnifica Technologia: Seven key takeaways from Canada's new AI strategy - "Artificial intelligence is never defined in the strategy—an omission so fundamental that it is hard to imagine it was an accident. That ambiguity is the source of serious conceptual drift.
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The strategy claims that its “north star” is building trust in AI. However, as the document makes abundantly clear, the true guiding principle of the strategy is AI adoption. Everything else, including trust, is a means to that end.
These are not the only issues that the new federal AI strategy ignores (there is also warfare, corporate power, human rights, ethics and more) but they are emblematic of the underlying ethos of the Magnifica Technologia. The federal government seems to truly believe that “prosperity and sovereignty in this era belong to nations that can leverage trust to adopt, build, and govern AI.” In the context of that vision, there is no space for fundamental concerns about AI itself.
Nevertheless, Canada has its long-overdue artificial intelligence strategy. Now comes the hard part. The federal government must deliver on its commitments to safety regulation and it must be prepared to pick a side when those commitments come into conflict with the demands of the AI industry.
It must also be prepared to respond to the evidence, even (and especially) when it conflicts with the government’s vision of AI adoption. Faith can only take us so far."