Al Vigier: Canada's AI strategy shouldn't include secret Palantir bills
Instead, buy domestic product, and out in the open.
Three weeks ago, the Canadian federal government released “AI for All” and named itself the “strategic anchor customer” for Canadian artificial intelligence. The pitch is that Ottawa will buy from sovereign Canadian businesses and drag a lagging country forward.
Only about 12 per cent of Canadian businesses use AI , and barely eight per cent of small firms do. Ottawa’s new strategy wants 60 per cent by 2034. Government buying is supposed to lead the way.
The inconvenient part is that the government is already a serious AI customer. It just buys American, and it buys quietly.
Consider Palantir, one of the bigger U.S. firms in the space.
The Department of National Defence signed a contract with its Canadian arm in March 2020, starting at $14.4 million . It was never disclosed. More than a dozen amendments later, the value had climbed to about $44.4 million by last October , with roughly $46.8-million actually spent. A separate $3.7 million Defence contract surfaced only after a Conservative MP pressed the government on its AI spending.