I find it quite preoccupying that some of the public don't trust AI, because this is a very important technology. It's like saying that we didn't trust digitalization, computers, biotechnology or, for that matter, nuclear technologies. In fact, this happened in some countries. When the public did not trust new technologies, I think it turned out to be detrimental for the prosperity of that country, at least in the given sector, which is why AI literacy is extremely important. AI education is extremely important.
Yes, there are areas where we need to be very clear about the guardrails so that we use the technology but it's human-centric.
It is a powerful technology that is being regularly used in science and drug development. We talked about health. There have been a lot of clinical trials where we know the toxicity, for example, of certain molecules. We don't need to repeat this if we can have an AI algorithm that is able to predict toxicities or lack thereof. This can greatly accelerate the use of life-saving drugs.
Of course, in terms of apps, there are also so many things that can allow people to have at least a first consultation on many things.
I believe that this is a very important technology, and Canada can be proud of our contributions. We need to accelerate adoption because I think that, the more people use the technology, the more they're going to trust it or know how to use it so that it's trustworthy.
At the same time, I think we need to have a clear policy framework to assure the population regarding bad actors or the bad use of the technology, just like we did with biotechnology.