Canada warns foreign AI dependence threatens data security and competitiveness
Only 12% of businesses use AI, highlighting Canada’s adoption gap
New AI strategy backs sovereign infrastructure and a $20bn Cohere expansion initiative
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched Canada's artificial intelligence (AI) strategy with a direct warning today that the country's dependence on foreign technology infrastructure which creates real risks that could see AI used against Canadian interests rather than in service of them.
Speaking at the strategy's launch on Thursday, the Prime Minister said the country was "highly dependent on foreign suppliers for the infrastructure that powers AI," and that this dependence was not merely a commercial inconvenience.
"That creates real risks that foreign entities could access Canadian data, deploy AI products that shape Canadian lives without reflecting our values, and tilt the playing field against Canadian firms — while Canada lacks the leverage to push back or the ability to control," Carney said.
Carney had warned at Davos earlier this year that global powers had used economic integration as a tool of pressure against smaller nations; AI, in his framing, is the next arena for that dynamic.
The Adoption Gap
Canada's prime minister's office acknowledged the country was among the slowest in the G7 to adopt AI at scale. Only 12% of Canadian businesses are currently using AI, with adoption rates even lower amongst small and medium-sized enterprises. Globally, Canada ranks near the bottom on AI training, literacy and public trust in the technology.
On infrastructure, Carney announced plans to build a world-leading public AI supercomputer, as part of a broader commitment to develop sovereign capabilities domestically where possible, and to partner with trusted allies where building alone is not feasible.
"When we can't build alone in Canada, we will partner with like-minded allies," Carney said, citing Germany specifically.
The clearest expression of that approach is the acquisition by Canadian AI company Cohere of German firm Aleph Alpha, backed by both the Canadian and German governments, which created a combined entity valued at around $20bn with dual headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. The deal was explicitly designed to position Cohere as a sovereign alternative to the US tech giants. Cohere chief executive Aidan Gomez welcomed Carney's announcement, saying Canada had "seen too many big ideas grow elsewhere" and that AI should be where that pattern changes.
