Carney launches Canada's 13-member Prime Minister's National Council on AI, including Yoshua Bengio and Gillian Hadfield
On Oct 2, 2026 Prime Minister Mark Carney created the Prime Minister's National Council on Artificial Intelligence, a 13-member body that will give independent advice on Canada's "AI for All" strategy: faster adoption, national champions and sovereign AI infrastructure, plus safety and democracy. Members include Yoshua Bengio, Gillian Hadfield, Sanja Fidler, Ajay Agrawal and Cloudflare co-founder Michelle Zatlyn.
Key facts
- Members: Ajay Agrawal, Yoshua Bengio, Sanja Fidler, John Graham (CPP Investments CEO), Gillian Hadfield, Jordan Jacobs (Radical Ventures), Eric Lamarre (McKinsey), Valérie Pisano (Mila CEO), Senator Thomas Pitfield, Jody Thomas (former national security adviser), Louis Vachon (ex-National Bank), Michelle Zatlyn (Cloudflare) and Patrick Pichette (ex officio) (pm.gc.ca, BetaKit)
- Carney: 'Prosperity and sovereignty in the age of AI belong to nations that can build, adopt, and govern AI on their own terms.'
- Context: the 'AI for All' strategy (June 2026) targets $200B in economic growth and 250,000 AI jobs over five years, and raising AI adoption from 12% to 60% by 2034 (per the release)
- Supported by a small Privy Council Office team; ministers stay accountable for policy. The release names no chair
What happened
The Prime Minister's Office announced the council in Ottawa on Oct 2. It mixes AI researchers (Bengio, Fidler, Hadfield), investors and executives (Agrawal, Jacobs, Zatlyn, Graham, Vachon), Mila's CEO and national-security figures (Jody Thomas).
Why it matters
It adds a high-level advisory channel for Canada as the US, UK and others rework their AI governance. With Bengio, one of the most prominent advocates of slowing frontier AI, on a council whose main brief is adoption and sovereignty, it is worth watching whether its advice leans toward safety or toward growth. Details of the "AI for All" figures come from the PMO release and have not been checked against the strategy document.
Changelog
- 2026-10-05: created from sweep 2026-10-05 (energi.media item)
People
Sources (5)
- officialPMO: Prime Minister Carney launches new National Council on Artificial Intelligence (Oct 2)
- pressBetaKit: Federal government launches new national AI council
- pressCBC: Ottawa launches new national AI council to advise on safety, deployment
- pressThe Logic: Carney picks big-name researchers and investors for new AI advisory council
- pressenergi.media: Carney names AI council to help Canada turn research strength into economic power
id: 2026-10-02-canada-pm-national-council-on-ai · updated 2026-10-05 · open in the interactive timeline