# Canadian AI Advisory Councils
**October 9, 2026**
![[members.webp]]
The Canadian government is asking the most important question of our time:
> What happens when you take a bunch of people, whose careers and salaries depend on AI being integral the public life, and ask them "do you think we should use AI more?"
They answer "Yes, we should use AI more."
Every 6-9 months the Canadian government announces a new advisory group, taskforce, strategy consortium, stakeholder amalgum, technologist hive-mind. Some highlights over the last few years include:
- [October 2026](https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/10/02/prime-minister-carney-launches-new-national-council-artificial) - National Council on Artificial Intelligence
- ??? - [Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/member-biographies-advisory-council-artificial-intelligence)
- September 2025 - [AI Strategy Task Force](https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2025/09/government-of-canada-launches-ai-strategy-task-force-and-public-engagement-on-the-development-of-the-next-ai-strategy.html),
- February 2025 - [Safe and Secure AI Advisory Group](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/safe-and-secure-ai-advisory-group).
- [May 2019](https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2019/05/government-of-canada-creates-advisory-council-on-artificial-intelligence.html) - Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence is set up, for the old-heads
All of these fantastic groups would in theory advise the government on the implications of AI, what effects it may have on society, and represent the views of everyone impacted by AI.
With AI being pushed into every corner of society, let's check whose viewpoints are represented by these groups?
- ✅ CEOs of AI companies
- ✅ AI academic researchers
- ❌ Teachers
- ❌ Students
- ❌ Workers
So an advisory council made up of people whose **careers depend on AI being central to public life**. Do you think they would advocate for _not_ using AI?
Also ideally when a group like this is announced, media would investigate the members' backgrounds, and give context on how their vested interest in AI growing in importance might undermine their objectivity. But here we are making a website to do that.
## Safe and Secure AI Advisory Group
Look it's both safe _and_ secure, okay? The [Safe and Secure AI Advisory Group](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/safe-and-secure-ai-advisory-group) was launched back in the ancient past of Feburary 2025.
This is very similar to the [[#National Council on Artificial Intelligence]].
| Name | What they do | Affiliation | Relevant reading |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Yoshua Bengio | AI researcher selling "safe AI" | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en), [his safe AI company](https://lawzero.org/en) | His "safe AI" company got [$300M from Canada and germany](https://betakit.com/yoshua-bengios-lawzero-receives-300-million-backing-from-canada-and-germany-to-pursue-safer-ai-ambitions/) |
| Jeff Clune | AI researcher | [Google Deepmind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_DeepMind), UBC | Worked for [Uber, OpenAI and Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Clune). Neat.
| David Duvenaud | AI researcher | | Previously worked at Anthropic |
| Golnoosh Farnadi | AI researcher | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en) | [Mila focus of data centre protest](https://globalnews.ca/news/12061206/montreal-ai-institute-vandalism/) |
| David Lie | AI researcher | | Previously worked at Ahtropinthropic|
| Deval Pandya | VP at AI institute | [Vector Institute](https://vectorinstitute.ai/) | [Received $27M from people of Ontario](https://vectorinstitute.ai/the-vector-institute-will-receive-27m-from-the-ontario-government/), [more](https://theijf.org/government-funding/960713-378791) |
| Joelle Pineau | Exec at AI company | [Cohere](https://cohere.com/) | [Cohere received $240M from people of Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/12/deputy-prime-minister-announces-240-million-for-cohere-to-scale-up-ai-compute-capacity.html) |
| Deborah Raji | | Mozilla, the Firefox people | |
| Elissa Strome | AI research chair | [CIFAR](https://cifar.ca/) | [Let's see how many CIFAR posts talk about refusal](https://cifar.ca/?s=&fwp_search_posts=refusal) |
| Adam White | AI researcher | | [Google Deepmind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_DeepMind) | |
## National Council on Artificial Intelligence
In previous press releases, they did flashy bios of all the new members of the council. With this update, they just released a list of names.
That's not fair. Here's all the the hottest stars from 2026. Unlike a lot of other councils, this one features fewer AI researchers, and many more 🤑bankers💰
| Name | What they do | Affiliation | Relevant reading |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ajay Agrawal | "Economics" | | [just wow](https://agrawal.ca/) |
| Yoshua Bengio | AI researcher selling "safe AI" | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en), [his safe AI company](https://lawzero.org/en) | His "safe AI" company got [$300M from Canada and germany](https://betakit.com/yoshua-bengios-lawzero-receives-300-million-backing-from-canada-and-germany-to-pursue-safer-ai-ambitions/) |
| Sanja Fidler | CEO of AI company | [Veeda AI](https://www.veeda.ai/) | |
| Gillian Hadfield | "Economics" | [like, everything](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Hadfield) | |
| Jordan Jacobs | CEO of AI company | ["radical ventures"](https://radical.vc/) | they have a .vc domain name, damn |
| Eric Lamarre | consulting?? | McKinsey for 32 years, 3 months | [bread](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-worked-for-a-company-that-was-fixing-bread-prices) |
| Valérie Pisano | CEO of research institute| [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en) | Same place as Yoshua Bengio |
| Thomas Pitfield | Politician | Liberal Party | [Carney picked him specifically](https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/07/07/carney-names-his-principal-secretary-and-a-conservative-mp-to-senate/) |
| Jody Thomas | spin doctor? | [Counsel](https://counselpa.com/team/jody-thomas/) | |
| Louis Vachon | Former CEO of National Bank of Canada | The concept of money | Just a [straight up bank dude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Vachon), no AI required |
| Michelle Zatlyn | Cofounded Cloudflare | | [Lives in San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Zatlyn), but advising the Canadian National Council on AI? |
Previous stars of the National Council on Artificial Intelligence:
| Name | What they do | Affiliation | Relevant reading |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Yoshua Bengio | AI researcher selling "safe AI" | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en), [his safe AI company](https://lawzero.org/en) | His "safe AI" company got [$300M from Canada and germany](https://betakit.com/yoshua-bengios-lawzero-receives-300-million-backing-from-canada-and-germany-to-pursue-safer-ai-ambitions/) |
| Jeff Clune | AI researcher | [Google Deepmind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_DeepMind), UBC | Worked for [Uber, OpenAI and Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Clune). Neat.
| David Duvenaud | AI researcher | | |
| Golnoosh Farnadi | AI researcher | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en) | [Mila focus of data centre protest](https://globalnews.ca/news/12061206/montreal-ai-institute-vandalism/) |
| David Lie | AI researcher | | |
| Deval Pandya | VP at AI institute | [Vector Institute](https://vectorinstitute.ai/) | [Received $27M from people of Ontario](https://vectorinstitute.ai/the-vector-institute-will-receive-27m-from-the-ontario-government/), [more](https://theijf.org/government-funding/960713-378791) |
| Joelle Pineau | |[Cohere](https://cohere.com/) | She now works at Cohere |
| Deborah Raji | | | |
| Elissa Strome | AI research chair | [CIFAR](https://cifar.ca/) | [What if we didn't use AI?](https://cifar.ca/?s=&fwp_search_posts=refusal) |
| Adam White | AI researcher | | [Google Deepmind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_DeepMind) | |
## Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence
This diverse group of individuals represent the voices of Canadian ~~companies~~ people.
| Name | What they do | Affiliation | Relevant reading |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Olivier Blais | CEO of AI company | [Moov AI](https://moov.ai) | |
| Diane Gutiw | VP of consulting company | [CGI](https://www.cgi.com/canada/en-ca) | |
| Yoshua Bengio | AI researcher selling "safe AI" | [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en), [his safe AI company](https://lawzero.org/en) | His "safe AI" company got [$300M from Canada and germany](https://betakit.com/yoshua-bengios-lawzero-receives-300-million-backing-from-canada-and-germany-to-pursue-safer-ai-ambitions/) |
| Melika Carroll | AI company spokesperson | [Cohere](https://cohere.com/) | [Cohere received $240M from people of Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/12/deputy-prime-minister-announces-240-million-for-cohere-to-scale-up-ai-compute-capacity.html) |
| Glenda Crisp | CEO of AI research institute | [Vector Institute](https://vectorinstitute.ai/) | [Received $27M from people of Ontario](https://vectorinstitute.ai/the-vector-institute-will-receive-27m-from-the-ontario-government/), [more](https://theijf.org/government-funding/960713-378791) |
| Nicole Jannsen | CEO of AI company | [AltaML](https://altaml.com/) | [Contracted by Alberta government](https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-artificial-intelligence-lab-govlab-ai), received [$1.3M funding from people of Alberta](https://theijf.org/government-funding/957622-386096) |
| Rex Lee | CTO (Canadian Tire Officer) | Canadian Tire, no really | [Did you know it used to be 5%?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Tire_money) |
| Cam Linke | Previously AI booster, now CEO of AI research institute | [Amii](https://www.amii.ca/) | Amii is responsible for making [K-12 AI literacy curriculum that have yet to be released](https://www.amii.ca/courses-literacy/k-12-ai-literacy) |
| Valérie Pisano | CEO of research institute| [Mila](https://mila.quebec/en) | Same place as Yoshua Bengio |
| Elissa Strome | AI research chair | [CIFAR](https://cifar.ca/) | [What if we didn't use AI?](https://cifar.ca/?s=&fwp_search_posts=refusal) |
| Natiea Vinson | First-nations representative | | |
Source: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/member-biographies-advisory-council-artificial-intelligence
## AI Strategy Task Force
This is from way back in September 2025 so a lot of this is really out of date by now.
It's interesting to see how some of the talent moved up to the big leagues in the newer [[#Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence]] and how some didn't make the cut.
| Name | What they do | Affiliation | Relevant reading |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gail Murphy | University stuff | UBC | |
| Diane Gutiw | VP of consulting company | [CGI](https://www.cgi.com/canada/en-ca) | |
| Michael Bowling | AI research chair | [CIFAR](https://cifar.ca/) | |
| Arvind Gupta | Professor | University of Toronto | |
| Olivier Blais | CEO of AI company | [Moov AI](https://moov.ai) | |
| Cari Covent | "AI advisor" at AI company | Microsoft | Peaked with [Fine Artist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_Artist) |
| Dan Debow | CEO of a mystery | [Build Canada](https://www.buildcanada.com/) | Some sort of group focused on business and government spending |
| Louis Têtu | CEO of AI company | [Coveo](https://www.coveo.com/en) |
| Michael Serbinis | Research stuff | [Perimeter Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perimeter_Institute_for_Theoretical_Physics) | |
| Adam Keating | CEO of AI company AI company CEO | [CoLab](https://www.colabsoftware.com/) |
| Patrick Pichette | Venture capital human | [Inovia Capital](https://www.inovia.vc/) | They have a .vc domain |
| Sonia Sennik | CEO of a business "lab"?? | [Creative Destruction Lab](https://creativedestructionlab.com/) | What if "disruption" was in academia? |
| Ajay Agrawal | Also at business "lab" | [Creative Destruction Lab](https://creativedestructionlab.com/) | |
| Ben Bergen | President... | [Council of Canadian Innovators ](https://www.canadianinnovators.org/) | Some kind of pro-business group? |
| Mary Wells | Dean of Engineering, University of Waterloo | | |
| Joelle Pineau | Exec at AI company | [Cohere](https://cohere.com/) | [Cohere received $240M from people of Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/12/deputy-prime-minister-announces-240-million-for-cohere-to-scale-up-ai-compute-capacity.html) |
| Taylor Owen | ??? | | |
| Doyin Adeyemi | UofT | | |
| Natiea Vinson | CEO First Nations Technology Council | | |
| Alex Laplante | \$\$\$ | RBC | |
| David Naylor | UofT | | |
| Sarah Ryan | Senior Research Officer, Canadian Union of Public Employees | [CUPE](https://cupe.ca/) | They let a union rep onto this? Oh she didn't make the cut to the next group in 2026 nevermind |
| Garth Gibson | CTO of AI company | [VDURA](https://www.vdura.com/) | |
| Ian Rae | CEO of AI company | [Aptum](https://aptum.com/) | |
| Marc Etienne Ouimette | ??? | [SovreignAI](https://sovereignai.app/), [AWS?](https://oecd.ai/en/community/marc-etienne-ouimette) | |
| Shelly Bruce | Canadian think tank | [CIGI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_for_International_Governance_Innovation) | [AI articles](https://www.cigionline.org/topics/artificial-intelligence/) |
| James Neufeld | CEO of AI company | [samdesk](https://www.samdesk.io/) | |
| Sam Ramadori | CEO of AI company | [LawZero](https://lawzero.org/en) | Company started by Yoshua Bengio to sell "safe AI" |