As the Carney government promotes artificial intelligence as part of its bid to grow the Canadian economy, some inventors who use the technology and experts who study its impacts are calling on Ottawa to add more guardrails — something the federal government is actively examining.

“The guardrails we have now are the ones that the big tech companies are self-imposing, quite honestly, and what we’re seeing is that they’re not sufficient,” said Valérie Pisano, CEO of Montreal’s AI institute Mila, a non-profit committed to advancing AI for the benefit of all.

In an interview with CBC’s The House that aired Saturday morning, Pisano said her goal is figuring out “some protection in a world where — really, we let the companies do whatever they wanted — without hindering innovation."

“We know how to do this,” Pisano said. “We’ve 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.”

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.

Valérie Pisano, CEO of Montreal’s AI institute Mila, says her non-profit is committed to advancing AI for the benefit of all.