One of the world’s largest AI companies wants a deal with Canada. Is sovereignty a compromise?

One of the world’s largest artificial intelligence companies is knocking on Canada’s door, potentially armed with an offer that – under normal circumstances – would be hard to refuse.

OpenAI is building a global network of data centers to store the huge amounts of information collected by its services, including ChatGPAT — and Canada’s cheap energy could help with that.

The company believes that AI and its associated infrastructure will be the foundation of future economic growth, and says it wants to help spread what it calls “democratic AI.” It has been launched recently”OpenAI for countries“To pounce on the spot.

Meanwhile, Canada, wary of the increasingly protectionist US government and powerful US tech companies subject to its laws, is trying to distance itself from foreign players by building AI models domestically. And paradoxically, OpenAI says it can contribute to this by building those centers on Canadian soil.

The company is currently considering its US$500 billion investment in building data center infrastructure in Canada Stargate Initiative In similar projects in the United States and around the world.

“Canada has many different elements in building abundant AI models, whether it’s the power and the resources — and frankly, the means and the will — to really become a leader in the technology,” said Chan Park, OpenAI’s head of US and Canada public policy and partnerships, during a recent interview with CBC News at Toronto’s Elevate Fest.

Park has met with key officials, including Artificial Intelligence Minister Ivan Solomon, to discuss a potential partnership.

Canadian politicians, public policy experts and business leaders are becoming increasingly vocal about the need for “digital sovereignty”, a term referring to a country’s ability to control its own data and technology infrastructure, including ownership and storage of data domestically.

Experts told CBC News that Canada is at a crossroads as it balances this goal and that partnering with OpenAI could be an exercise in self-defeat. Still, they agreed that the country could not afford to hinder its progress by shutting out global companies altogether.

US access to Canadian data

The concern with foreign companies holding Canadian data is that they will have to comply with the laws of their respective countries, “so (the information) will be allowed to be moved across countries,” said Jennifer Pybus, assistant professor of political science and Canada Research Chair in Data, Democracy and AI at York University in Toronto.

“I think people are very concerned that most Canadian data is actually processed by American companies,” he said. “And so Canada wants this agency to have greater autonomy and control over the data of Canadians in Canada.”

Guillaume Beaumier, an assistant professor of political science and international studies at l’École nationale d’administration publique in Quebec City, said he was shocked by OpenAI’s use of digital sovereignty as an international selling point for its products.

“But honestly, I think we can be very critical of the extent to which it will be able to achieve and promote Canadian sovereignty,” he said, partly because of existing U.S. law that limits a country’s control over data stored by American companies.

2018 CLOUD Act This gives the US government the right to access data from anywhere, as long as it is kept in a server owned by an American company. Canada and the US have been negotiating a bilateral agreement on the CLOUD Act for three years, but none is in place yet. According to Beaumier, a large portion of cloud storage servers and data centers in Canada are owned by companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google – meaning that Canadian data, even if processed on Canadian soil, is ultimately being governed by the United States.

US companies have shown that they will follow US law as compared to other jurisdictions. Microsoft executives admitted to a French hearing committee earlier this year that the company “can’t guarantee“Data sovereignty lies with EU member states as it is tied to the CLOUD Act.

Meanwhile, the Canada-US-Mexico agreement has been reached Section Which restricts the ability of countries to control the transfer of data, including personal information, between borders for commercial purposes. For example, Facebook could send Canadian data to a U.S. center instead of building a center in Canada, Beaumier said.

“One of the main arguments made by these companies is that they will try to create technological solutions to avoid being forced to provide this data when asked by the US government,” he said.

“There could be a number of ways to do this — basically saying, ‘We’re building something that even we can’t access and then transferring to the U.S. government.’ But then it comes back to the question of trust, and how much we are willing to trust these companies.”

Minister’s office says meetings are not endorsement

In addition to the massive Stargate investment, OpenAI currently has several significant contracts with the US government, including an agreement to supply ChatGPT to the entire federal workforce and a recent $200 million US contract with the US Department of Defense.

“You still face the risk that if the U.S. government basically told the company to stop offering its services in Canada, they might have to do that,” Beaumier said.

Asked if there were any tensions with a US company that has contracts with the US government to build sovereign technologies in countries that are trying to reduce their dependence on the US, Park said, “Not at this point.”

“We clearly understand the interests of the Canadian people, the Canadian government, Canadian businesses, to make sure that any type of AI ecosystem built in Canada is truly rooted in Canadian values” while respecting privacy interests, he said.

CBC News reached out to Solomon’s office to ask about his meetings with OpenAI amid the push for digital sovereignty and whether there is a partnership with the companyy will struggle wThis is that strategy.

A spokesperson said, “Minister Solomon meets regularly with Canadian and international technology leaders to advance Canada’s digital and AI strategy. These meetings are part of ongoing engagement and do not represent endorsement or active dialogue.”

“Our priority is to ensure that any AI or digital infrastructure built in Canada – whether domestically or by international partners – operates fully within Canadian laws and regulatory, security and privacy frameworks.”

‘We cannot build a wall on the border’

Still, experts acknowledged that Canada cannot hinder its progress in artificial intelligence lest it fall behind in developing the technology. can convert Global economy.

“I think we have to be pragmatic here. We can’t build a border wall and think that digital infrastructure is something that Canadian companies can solve alone. No country can do that, not even the United States,” said Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators.

There are going to be “some net benefits” from using the expertise of foreign firms for some solutions in Canada, Bergen said, but he cautioned that any loss of autonomy in those relationships could have consequences.

Bergen and Beaumier agreed that this only highlights the need for Canada to seek out the same technologies it has long acquired from other countries.

Toronto-BFor example, recently ASED enterprise AI company Cohere participation with the federal government, while other companies are push OttaWe have to adopt their in-house cloud service.

“There are companies in this country that do that. Are they on the scale of Amazon or OpenAI? No,” Bergen said, adding that the Canadian-made technology could also be sold to other countries trying to limit American or Chinese dependence.

“But you have to start somewhere in terms of supporting the companies that are able to do the forms of digital technology that we consider sovereign, and that cannot be compromised.”