In Canadian leader Mark Carney's striking Davos speech in January, he called for middle powers to ensure they aren't forced to choose between hegemons and hyper-scalers in AI development. That warning grows more urgent as Anthropic's Mythos release in April sent shockwaves, with Canada, the EU, Japan, and others seeking access to prevent attacks on financial systems.
The Dilemma of Rapid Technological Change
The rapid pace of AI advancement presents a dilemma for Carney's like-minded democracies and every nation: How to assert strategic autonomy while avoiding being left behind as the US and China invest hundreds of billions into cutting-edge AI capabilities. Evan Solomon, Canada's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, noted a political realignment happening alongside a technological revolution.
Global Survey of Government Approaches
A Bloomberg News survey of government AI approaches across three continents shows administrations increasingly fearful of being consigned to the sidelines. Backed by unmatched financial firepower and Nvidia's advanced chips, US tech leaders like Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI race to build AI infrastructure. China's rival ecosystem includes DeepSeek, Tencent, and Alibaba.
The rest of the world now seeks to keep pace. Canada unveiled a new AI strategy this month, aiming to pool resources with other nations. In February, it signed a Sovereign Technology Alliance with Germany to reduce strategic technology dependencies. Canadian developer Cohere Inc. agreed to buy German AI champion Aleph Alpha in April. Carney is due in France ahead of President Macron's AI-infused G7 summit.
Collaboration for Scale and Control
As the US and China advance technologically, nations in Europe and Canada must work together to gain scale, IP, and ingredients to compete and maintain control, said Solomon. Where US policy focuses on building data centres—the Stargate Project alone is worth US$500 billion—other governments emphasize industry guardrails.
Alexander Proell, Austria's state secretary for digital affairs, stated: AI is the greatest disruption of our time. It is here to stay, and we don't want to be left behind.
