Scale up to keep up with AI

October 24, 2024
abstract galaxy art

Universities Canada’s recommendation for Budget 2025

Artificial intelligence is everywhere—and still expanding. We’re only just beginning to unlock the potential of this promising new tech, but are we ready? We need to scale up to keep up with AI.

What’s the issue?

Significant investments were made in artificial intelligence in Budget 2024, but we need the digital research infrastructure to support what those investments are hoping to achieve. Our current infrastructure doesn’t have the capacity to manage or store our AI data in a secure way. With the Digital Research Alliance of Canada’s mandate up for renewal, now’s the perfect time to invest in more infrastructure to support Canada’s expanding AI landscape.

Why is it important?

Artificial intelligence is a huge and growing industry with lots of advancements being made worldwide. Canada is no exception, with great strides being made at our post-secondary and research institutions daily. Part of the problem is our digital research infrastructure isn’t large or secure enough to support and protect our research data and needs to be expanded. If we created a centralized platform, universities and small- to medium-sized enterprises could safely and securely store their data and potentially collaborate more by using common platforms.

Our recommendations

To keep up with the demands of the AI landscape, Canada should renew the Digital Research Alliance of Canada’s mandate and invest in the infrastructure needed for better data management and security. Recent investments have paved the way for Canada to lead in the AI industry, but we need the data storage infrastructure to properly store it and work with it. 

What is the pre-budget submission?

Every year, as the Government of Canada looks to set its budget, Universities Canada provides information on the biggest issues facing universities and solutions to help universities and Canadians thrive. Read more of our recommendations to government in our pre-budget submission.