The first national AI strategy
Canada was the first country in the world to adopt a state AI strategy, with a budget of 125 million dollars and three institutes.
Why it matters
A state recognised AI as a matter of industrial policy for the first time, and eighteen countries followed the example within two years.
The money went not to individual projects but to keeping people: named chairs for researchers and three institutes, Mila in Montreal, Vector in Toronto and Amii in Edmonton. The logic was simple: the Canadian schools around Hinton and Bengio had been losing graduates to American companies for years. The strategy became the template France, China and Britain copied.