Is Canada still in the lead in AI?

You may be shocked about this, but no, we’re not.

By VICTOR ANJOS

I remember the days of helping start DeepLearni.ng which would later go on to become Dessa where the world of AI, and even more specifically, the world of deep learning and Neural Networks was new and novel, and Canada was a little bit ahead of the world. Fast forward 4 years and here we are, with all governments setting a very common policy position on AI; let’s do everything we can to be relevant and we have larger countries with much larger budgets, who have set themselves apart in other ways.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane of what the Canadian government (and Canada, more broadly) did and find out where we stand today.

Let’s explore the world landscape now.

AI Global Landscape Rankings

RankCountryTalentInfrastructureOperating EnvironmentResearchDevelopmentGovernment StrategyCommercialTotal
1US10010080.410089.468.5100100
2China15.893.189.45210010034.458.3
3UK31.878.110037.82088.222.643.7
4Canada32.862.980.929.420.396.715.237
5Germany23.473.377.233.319.596.38.735.3
6France24.652.996.527.22395.61134.1
7Singapore41.885.936.224.518.630.412.833.3
8South Korea11.484.947.122.473.123.13.331.7
9Japan12.268.959.532.22474.110.930.4
10Ireland29.398.748.220.1273.84.430.4
* Source: CEO World Magazine [https://ceoworld.biz/2019/12/04/report-countries-that-are-leading-the-artificial-intelligence-race/]

Canada at one time was in the lead in AI, being the first country to have a Federal level (Pan-Canadian) AI Strategy. Lack of critical money and a heavy reliance on academia has seen Canada lose its lead, very specifically in commercialization; where it really matters.

And finally, Canada’s position is obviously not only internal.

[pdf-embedder url="http://1000ml.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Canada-International-AI.pdf"]
  • As a country we are always looking to multi-nationals to invest in the country, create jobs, etc…  The issue I have with such investment is that the corporate giants are sure to take all revenue out of the country as quickly as possible and are really only here to further the brain drain.

As you can see from the charts in this post and the current way in which Canada is broadly placating any and every large tech multi-national, the strategy seems to have fully changed.  Canada is no longer a hotbed for AI (especially commercializable AI), with China, the US and even Germany making huge leaps.  We could very well see what happened more generally with technology where some fearless leaders persist and push the agenda, though no AI unicorns are built in Canada.

At 1000ml, we are trying to change that with our Hatch program which is meant to foster these ideas with serious levels of NON-dilutive investment and access to:

– world leading AI experts (not academics, but those that have had a lot of commercial success in AI)

– world leading (FREE) cloud and infrastructure

– vastly reduced cost of consultation and work done with our resident AI teams

So what do you do when all signs point to having to go to University to gain any sort of advantage? Unfortunately it’s the current state of affairs that most employers will not hire you unless you have a degree for even junior or starting jobs. Once you have that degree, coming to a Last Mile Finishing School, with 1000ml being the only one worldwide, is the only way forward to gaining the practical knowledge and experience that will jumpstart your career.

Check out our next dates below for our upcoming courses, we’d love to have you there.

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