Federal AI minister addresses safety fears during Edmonton visit

Federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told reporters Wednesday that the government is closely monitoring the situation at AI company Anthropic, after a researcher who resigned this week warned that people in the industry fear AI could "kill us all." Solomon said such warnings are not new and that both regulatory and technical solutions exist to address AI risks.

Solomon pointed to the federal government's efforts to introduce privacy legislation and establish a new regulator with power to hold large tech companies accountable. He also cited government investment in AI safety and ongoing work by Canadian AI researcher Yoshua Bengio, along with international cooperation on protecting citizens from AI harms. Solomon acknowledged there are "real concerns" about AI's negative consequences.

The comments followed a social media post from researcher Jacob Coxon, who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic, accusing the two companies of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." Coxon said many in the industry privately fear AI could kill everyone by the end of the decade, even if they use more measured language publicly. Anthropic safety team lead Evan Hubinger responded to the post, stating he believes there is more than a 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

Solomon made his remarks during a visit to Edmonton, where he announced a new initiative aimed at boosting AI literacy among Canadians. The announcement follows his introduction last week of voluntary principles for building data centres in Canada, a response to growing public backlash against such facilities across the country.