\u201cWe know how to do this,\u201d Pisano said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done this in every other single impactful, innovative, transformative industry. We did it with aviation, we did it with pharma, we did it with nuclear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pisano said she keeps a close eye on a slate of risks posed by rapidly evolving AI, including how children interact with the technology, the environmental impact of AI data centres and its potential to displace young workers.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760175967_47_default.jpg\")
Val\u00e9rie Pisano, CEO of Montreal\u2019s AI institute Mila, says her non-profit is committed to advancing AI for the benefit of all. (Benjamin Lopez Steven\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been paying attention to the growing number of humans who are in intimate relationships with AI bots,\u201d Pisano said. \u201cWhat troubles me is this is a first \u2026 it\u2019s completely new.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this case, Pisano said AI could be a force for good where a young person struggling socially could use interactions with an AI chatbot to strengthen their social skills. But there would need to be other support around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can also go completely at the other end of the spectrum and what I see is horrific. It\u2019s being completely disengaged from human contact,\u201d Pisano said.<\/p>\n
That concern, among others, is something the federal government is closely examining and exploring how to best address, AI Minister Evan Solomon told The House.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Can AI relationships help with loneliness?:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1756686547_21_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Relationships with AI are here, but do they really help with loneliness? It\u2019s complicated. <\/p>\n
Researchers are increasingly turning to AI to help address loneliness and social isolation. But exploring this technology also raises questions about the social impact it may have on people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely a danger side that I\u2019m well aware of around kids using it,\u201d Solomon told host Catherine Cullen. \u201cBut we just have to figure out how this tool can be used properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to be \u2018it\u2019s all hype, it\u2019s all confetti, this is going to be great\u2019 or \u2018it\u2019s doom\u2019 \u2014 we\u2019ve got to be practical,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to have a plan and get this right because we have a lot of control here.\u201d<\/p>\n
That plan will come from various departments in the federal government, Solomon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He explained his office is responsible for data privacy, and he’ll be tabling legislation on the issue before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760175969_619_default.jpg\")
Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon says he’s preparing legislation around data privacy and AI. (Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
Solomon added that Heritage Minister Stephen Guilbeault handles online harms and Justice Minister Sean Fraser focuses on Criminal Code changes.<\/p>\n
The Liberal government has also given its new AI Strategy Task Force until the end of the month to consult their networks and then pitch ideas in November. Solomon said he hopes the refreshed national AI strategy is ready by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
The group has been asked to look at various aspects of AI, including research, adoption, commercialization, investment, infrastructure, skills and safety and security. The government is also holding a public consultation on its AI strategy.<\/p>\n
Critics of the task force told The Canadian Press this week<\/a> it leans too much on the perspective of industry and the tech sector and pointed out only three of the more than two dozen members<\/a> have been asked to work on safe AI systems and public trust.<\/p>\n Inventor echoes call for safeguards<\/p>\n At the Centre hospitalier de l’Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Leblond says the device he co-invented \u2014 a handheld tool called the Sentry that combines a laser with AI to detect whether tissue is cancerous or healthy in real time \u2014 is being used in up to five surgeries per week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be used to ensure that there is no residual tumour after the surgery,\u201d Leblond said. \u201cIt could avoid a second surgery, for example, and potentially in some cases, cure [a patient] through surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n Leblond said the Sentry sends back complex signals about the tissue it analyzes, and AI is used to ensure it\u2019s not making mistakes. He noted AI \u201cshould and will be\u201d an aid to make decisions but won\u2019t take control over what decisions are ultimately made. <\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be some guardrails,\u201d Leblond said. \u201cYou need to be an expert that\u2019s going to correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n AI in Canadian health care has the potential to be transformative, Leblond said, but there need to be evolving guidelines in regulating the technology to guard against issues like AI biases \u2014 for example, an algorithm only trained with the data of young men.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of examples like that and I think this needs to be integrated into the regulations,” he said.<\/p>\n AI and environmental risks<\/p>\n In order for Canada to scale up its AI industry, it\u2019s going to need a lot more computing power \u2014 and that\u2019s where data centres come into play.<\/p>\n At the end of last year, the federal government launched the Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy<\/a>, which it said would invest up to $700 million to \u201cgrow Canadian AI champions by leveraging investments\u201d in new or expanded data centres.<\/p>\n Hamish van der Ven, an assistant professor of sustainable business management of natural resources at the University of British Columbia, said data centres have enormous electricity needs and he questions how valuable they are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good if some data centres are relying on clean energy, but that doesn\u2019t stop ones operating on dirtier, more carbon-intensive forms of energy from opening up and potentially out-competing the ones operating with clean energy sources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency projected the electricity demand from data centres worldwide<\/a> is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours \u2014 just more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan.<\/p>\n If Canada decides data centres have a role in its economic future, \u201cthey need to be embedded within a stringent regulatory framework that adheres to the precautionary principle and requires zero-net emissions and no new demand on the energy grid,\u201d van der Ven said.<\/p>\n Angela Adam, senior vice-president of eStruxture, Canada\u2019s largest data centre provider, told The House that data centres are the \u201cvery base layers\u201d for innovators to build AI products.<\/p>\n She also said data centres that reside in Canada can safely store Canadians\u2019 data, since they\u2019re bound by Canadian laws. That angle is critical to Carney\u2019s plan<\/a> to build a \u201csovereign cloud\u201d that gives users greater control over where their data goes.<\/p>\n WATCH | A peek inside an Ottawa AI data centre: A peek inside an Ottawa AI data centre and what it takes to keep it cool<\/p>\n It takes an enormous amount of energy to power generative AI. CBC\u2019s Rebecca Zandbergen headed to a Nepean-based data centre where servers work furiously to power the technology. She spoke to the founder of ThinkOn to find out what it takes to cool all those servers and about responsible AI and the power grid.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you own your data, you own your destiny,\u201d Adam said. \u201cData centres and data, they\u2019re matters of national security right now and for a good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about environmental concerns, Adam said her company cares about powering itself cleanly and eStruxture has \u201calways been good stewards of sustainability, but we need increasing power. That is a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe need for electricity is not going to go down,\u201d Adam said. \u201cHow we collaborate with governments, with power producers, with regulators, it\u2019s a different story. We need to come together and figure out how we power these workloads in the most sustainable manner possible.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if Canada would put constraints on the energy used by data centres, Solomon said that\u2019s primarily a provincial responsibility. But he noted if a data centre is tied to Canada\u2019s grid, it\u2019s obligated to follow clean electricity regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Solomon also said Canada is looking at proposals for what a sovereign cloud or sovereign data centre looks like, \u201cand naturally we want to abide by our clean energy regulations. Those things are factors that we\u2019re considering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Carney government promotes artificial intelligence as part of its bid to grow the Canadian economy, some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-204867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760175969_941_default.jpg\")
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Leblond, co-inventor of the Sentry, says AI has the potential to transform Canadian health care, but there needs to be evolving guidelines since the technology is rapidly changing. (Benjamin Lopez Steven\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760175970_872_default.jpg\")
A data centre is pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (Michael Probst\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760175970_192_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n