I agree with that. It will change the labour market. I'm actually really optimistic about this. Some 200 years ago, 72% of North American workers were farmers, and now there are fewer than 2%. Sixty per cent of the jobs that existed in North America in 2018 didn't exist in 1940, so I think we're going to create a whole new set of jobs. However, it is going to be incumbent upon government and policy-makers to work with companies on making sure we're training the labour force of the future and that Canadians are getting the skills they need to enter what's going to be a whole new workforce with a whole new set of jobs. I agree with Nicole as well that in an era of labour shortages, AI is going to be the best tool we have to solve some of those issues.
On the issue of research and development, our global AI research is based in Montreal. Dr. Joelle Pineau, who I hope can appear before this committee at some point, can talk to about the amazing work she is doing out of Quebec to catalyze AI research globally.
I think the wrong regulatory framework and overreach or over-regulation by the government are going to drive activity out of the country. I would hate to see us lose it, because we are world leaders when it comes to AI research.