Evidence of meeting #15 for Science and Research in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was companies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you.
We will end this panel with two minutes for Mr. Holman and then two minutes for MP McKelvie.
MP Holman, please go ahead. You will have two minutes.
Conservative
Kurt Holman Conservative London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you to the witnesses who are here today in front of the science and research committee.
Mr. Linke, Canada positions itself as a leader in AI, yet we remain behind our peers in launching new antibiotics.
From your vantage point, what are specific AI-enabled opportunities that Canada is failing to capitalize on right now with respect to antibiotics?
Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
On the AI front, I can tell you that, while it's not specific to antibiotics, we're part of a national consortium around pandemic preparedness and working on leveraging AI to be able to design vaccines that can be rapidly deployed in the case of a new pandemic. There is a very big opportunity for Canada to be able to use similar things for antibiotics.
We've seen that AI as a technology is able to be a great lever in the acceleration of new antibiotics being created. Certainly that's an incredible opportunity here in Canada.
Again, this is part of this pairing of the two. We're fortunate here to have Nobel laureate Dr. Michael Houghton. Being able to pair somebody like Mike Houghton and the expertise of the research institute that we have is going to bear really fruitful results.
Conservative
Kurt Holman Conservative London—Fanshawe, ON
I have a follow-up question for you, Mr. Linke.
What prevents AI talent from moving into research and development? Is it funding models, regulatory barriers or a lack of industry partners? Are there any specific recommendations you can make to address these barriers?
Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
Often we talk about internships and things during study. There is what we call a leaky pipeline right after graduation, where the opportunity right away is in a large U.S. company that does a large amount of hiring and onboarding, or is supporting them as they are a very risky early entrepreneur and are off to create their new business.
There's a big opportunity to make sure those research opportunities for postgraduates are in Canada. Allow them to further create their homes here and create IP for Canada and Canadians. Make sure of that first cheque in, so we're investing in the start-ups and the people that we're creating in the institutes.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
Thank you. The time is up.
We will end this panel with MP McKelvie for two minutes.
Will MP Noormohamed take it?
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
I want to put a wrap on the conversation we were having earlier, Mr. Linke.
One thing I would observe—and you might share this observation or not; I'd love to hear your thoughts—is this idea that every investment has to be a home run, that every investment has to be a 10-bagger or a 20-bagger right off the bat.
How do we think about an ecosystem in this country where sometimes it's just getting on base and having those first couple of wins, so that you can actually go and raise a larger round? How do we get into that psychology, as well, where our investors are looking to make sure that the second and third round can actually happen?
Going back to the earlier conversation, how do we, as government now for a moment, cultivate the type of environment—beyond the things that we've already talked about doing—to ensure that the first cheque can actually come in? What do you think the reticence is in the investment community to actually being that first cheque?
Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
That's a great question.
I'm just white-knuckling my Internet here towards the end. Hopefully it will stay with me.
There are a couple of pieces. One is that it's hard for people to invest in an area they don't know, and we know that AI literacy in Canada isn't that high. Increasing AI literacy across the country will create an opportunity for both more adoption and more informed investment at the earlier stage. That's one area that's really important.
The second piece is making it easier for the incredible talent that we attract here to stay. I think there are some things we can do visa-wise to encourage that talent to stay and make it easier for them to be invested in and have that cycle of new company creation, so their success here stays in Canada.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Salma Zahid
With that, I'll thank both of the witnesses for appearing before the committee. Thanks to all of the members.
Is it the will of the committee to adjourn the meeting?
