Thank you for your question.
To my mind, it's really about creating stability in Canada's research system and ensuring its continued success. Canada provided a tremendous foundation for AI research. It's no exaggeration to say that Canada contributed to the emergence of the technology now used in the field of AI. That is thanks to the work of Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Rich Sutton and all the other godfathers of AI.
It's important to note that 130 researchers are in Canada today thanks to the CIFAR AI chair program. CIFAR helped develop the pan-Canadian AI strategy, launched in 2017. It's more than 130 researchers; it's 130 researchers with their labs and student teams. It's really an ecosystem.
Today, the challenge for the government is figuring out how to leverage, and build on, that success. Global competition in the field of AI is fierce. One good strategy is probably to make the necessary investments to ensure that the CIFAR chairs can continue their work. Other strategies exist as well, such as the $1.7‑billion investment in attracting talent, and initiatives to connect the community, industry and research ecosystem. Commercialization is the area Canada wants to focus on now.