Ottawa, Ontario
Investing in artificial intelligence (AI) is key to unlocking Canada's prosperity, resiliency and security as well as strengthening the country's leadership. The Government of Canada is committed to scaling up Canada's AI ecosystem, building AI infrastructure, increasing the adoption of AI systems and strengthening trust. In doing so, it is essential to develop AI in a safe and responsible manner so that it benefits all Canadians.
Today, the Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, announced that the Canadian AI Safety Institute, through the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, will contribute $1 million to the UK AI Security Institute's Alignment Project, a cutting-edge initiative to advance research on AI alignment. This critical field is focused on making advanced AI systems operate in a reliable and beneficial way, without unintended or harmful actions. The Alignment Project is backed by a CAN$29 million (£15.9 million) investment from an international coalition that includes Schmidt Sciences, Amazon Web Services, Halcyon Futures, the Safe AI Fund and the Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
The project will support pioneering work to keep advanced systems safe by maintaining transparency, predictability and responsiveness to human oversight. Through its collaborative approach, the project will remove key barriers that have previously limited alignment research by offering three distinct support streams:
- Grant funding: Up to $1.8 million for researchers across disciplines, including computer science and cognitive science
- Compute access: Dedicated compute resources, enabling technical experiments beyond typical academic reach
- Venture capital: Investment from private funders to accelerate commercial alignment solutions
The project will be guided by a world-class advisory board that includes Canadian AI expert Yoshua Bengio as well as Zico Kolter, Shafi Goldwasser and Andrea Lincoln.
This partnership will allow Canada to navigate this pivotal period of rapid technological advancement alongside profound geopolitical shifts and to position our country and its partners for success.
