Canada's prime minister launches a National Council on Artificial Intelligence
The 13-member advisory body includes Turing Award-winner Yoshua Bengio and will guide a strategy targeting $200bn in growth and 60% AI adoption by 2034.
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Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, announced the launch of the Prime Minister’s National Council on Artificial Intelligence, a 13-member advisory body meant to give the government independent advice on AI adoption, safety and sovereign infrastructure. Members named alongside Turing Award-winning AI researcher Yoshua Bengio include Ajay Agrawal, Sanja Fidler, Gillian Hadfield and Senator Thomas Pitfield, among others the government described as drawn from AI research, investment, industry and public service.
The council will advise on the evolution of “AI for All,” the national AI strategy Canada launched in June 2026, which targets an additional $200 billion in economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs within five years, and raising AI adoption from just over 12% to 60% by 2034. It will sit within the Privy Council Office, supported by a small secretariat, while government ministers retain formal accountability for policy decisions.
Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms.
The appointment extended Bengio’s advisory role in AI governance beyond the international assessments he had chaired for other governments — including the first International AI Safety Report, published in January 2025 — into a direct seat advising his own country’s strategy, a fortnight after Canada and Germany committed funding to his nonprofit, LawZero.