It’s widely understood that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will have transformative effects. Countries leading in these technologies have the highest potential to reap the benefits -- not only within a nation’s economy but also its society at large.

So what does it take to be a leading nation in AI? The recent Forbes article The 7 Most Promising Government Led AI Solutions endeavours to answer this question. Canadian AI leadership is profiled, alongside the US, Denmark, Estonia, Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia.

Credited in Canada’s success are its regional AI institutes: “With entities like the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII) in Edmonton, the Vector Institute in Toronto and MILA in Montreal, Canada is well poised to lead AI initiatives for the decades to come.”

The institutes have been united under a national strategy since 2017, when the Government of Canada launched the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. Administered by CIFAR, this was the first national AI strategy in the world.

The article also cites Canada’s commitment to health and education as key points in our leadership: “Canada wants to leverage AI to better the health of its citizens through its AI4Health Task Force. The country is also dedicated to including AI in their education systems to create future generations of AI researchers and top minds.”

Further proof of the Pan-Canadian AI Institutes’ commitment to health is the recently launched Roche AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) The CoE draws on the expertise of all three national AI institutes, and will work to deliver quality AI-based digital solutions that optimize and reduce the cost of healthcare delivery, improve health outcomes, and enable Canada to learn and nimbly respond to opportunities and potential challenges in the healthcare system.

Read the Forbes article online.