Alberta puts $50 million behind Amii’s AI research

Today, the province of Alberta announced a $50 million investment over five years for the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), home to two decades of reinforcement learning research.

Aimed at accelerating AI adoption across public services and industry, part of the plan includes leveraging the newly-established Alberta Intellectual Property Office to ensure IP is owned, protected, and commercialized in the province. 

Amii is one of Canada’s three national AI institutes, alongside Mila in Quebec and the Vector Institute in Ontario, operating under the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. Established in 2002, it has a focus on reinforcement learning, a field in which the province is recognized as a world leader.

Five ministries, one investment

When a government funds something like this, it’s often one ministry writing the cheque. 

This time it’s five.

The ministries of Technology and Innovation and Advanced Education are co-leads, investing $15 million each, with Assisted Living and Social Services at $10 million. Primary and Preventative Health Services and Education and Childcare are each contributing $5 million.

“Alberta has been a leader in the AI space for decades, and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute… has played a major role in keeping Alberta on top,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, announcing the funding at Platform Calgary. “They have worked closely with the government over the years to see how AI can be implemented into our everyday lives.”

She explained how the funding is the work of five ministries together, “because we know the significant impact that this could have on making the lives of Albertans better.”

Nate Glubish, Alberta’s minister of technology and innovation, credited Myles McDougall, Minister of Advanced Education as an equal partner on the file. 

“I couldn’t have done it alone. I found some of the money in my budget, but my good friend and colleague [McDougall] here is an equal partner with me in that through his budget,” Glubish said. 

Glubish also pointed to the province’s history with Amii. “Alberta began investing in AI research more than two decades ago. That early bet paid off,” he said, noting how Amii’s chief scientific advisor, Dr. Richard Sutton, was a co-recipient of the 2024 A.M. Turing Award, frequently dubbed ‘the Nobel Prize of computing.’

“This $50-million investment is a vote of confidence in that team,” Glubish added. “It will put AI to work for the people of this province: better healthcare, faster public services, and more Alberta companies solving real problems.”

McDougall said that this technology is helping modernize systems for skilled tradespeople. 

“We apply AI to apprenticeship delivery, streamlining the path to graduation, cutting the paperwork for employers, and getting Alberta’s skilled trade system ready for the workforce demand that’s coming.”

He also gave credit to Alberta’s post-secondary system.

“Our universities, colleges, and polytechnics are training the next generation, the engineers, the entrepreneurs, researchers, and skilled professionals who will lead in an AI-driven economy,” he added. “This investment backs them and strengthens an ecosystem where students can learn, researchers can lead, companies can scale right here in Alberta.” 

Bigger than a funding announcement

Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, was in attendance at the funding announcement, using the stage to put Alberta’s investment in a national context. 

“We have classically, as a country, been great at research, and we’ve sucked at commercialization,” he said. “Alberta has led the way to show how we have to do that better.”

Solomon cited a commercialization gap, where companies often end up relocating outside of the country, taking their talent and patents with them. 

“We are losing our best IP and brains, so we are stopping that,” he added, later tying that loss to a broader argument about sovereignty. 

“If we don’t build the infrastructure here, we’re going to have to rent it from someone else,” he said. “If we don’t build the innovation here, we’re going to have to buy it from someone else. And if we don’t make the rules here, we have to follow someone else’s.”

This funding comes the day after the news that Meta is building its first Canadian data centre in Alberta.

It also comes on the heels of a Government of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) announcement made at the Upper Bound AI Conference in Edmonton in May. Solomon announced the appointment and renewal of 42 Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, backed by a $24 million investment, all affiliated with the three national AI institutes.

Canada’s recent “AI for All” national strategy goes further, pledging to strengthen the national AI institute network and increase the Chairs program from 130 to nearly 200 researchers. He outlined an investment of $130 million into the national AI institutes, and mentioned $700 million in affordable sovereign compute for Canadian SMEs, an expansion of the Compute Access Fund.

Finally, Solomon revealed a $1.8 billion talent attraction strategy to attract 1000 of the top researchers and their labs to Canada.

“We need the talent to come to Canada,” he said. “It’s the best place to be, it’s the best place to build, and it’s the best place to start a company.”

Building on two decades of research

According to the province, Alberta’s government has invested about $100 million in Amii since 2002. Through its work under the province’s first Technology and Innovation Strategy, Amii has worked with 786 companies to adopt or advance AI, supported 318 startups, and reached 1.2 million people through its literacy programs.

The institute currently has more than 500 active researchers and 71 Amii Fellows/Canada CIFAR AI Chairs.

“We and our strategy have promised to do a free AI literacy course for every Canadian, because we believe everybody should have access to literacy, and we’re going to give an AI tool and agent to every post-secondary student in Canada for five years, free and available, because they need tools to build,” said Solomon, giving kudos to Amii CEO Cam Linke on his work with training and education.

“What’s happened here in Alberta at Amii is the model for the nation.”

The new Amii funding is meant to work against the ‘brain drain” pattern Solomon described. With the Alberta Intellectual Property Office, patents developed with public funds are kept in the province, framing the investment as a way to grow new jobs, attract private investment, and keep ideas developed in Alberta from moving elsewhere.

Linke said the investment builds on that foundation. 

“This investment enables Amii to strengthen the foundations of Alberta’s AI ecosystem by supporting startups, accelerating AI adoption across industry and the public sector, and building the AI literacy needed to prepare the workforce of the future,” he said. 

“Together, we are ensuring Alberta remains a destination for AI talent, innovation and investment while creating lasting economic and societal benefits for Albertans.”

Healthcare is a priority

Justin Wright, minister of primary and preventative health services, said the investment is meant to support faster, better-targeted care. 

“Alberta’s primary and preventative health system depends on getting the right information to the right provider at the right time,” he said. 

“By investing in Amii, we are supporting made-in-Alberta AI solutions that can help improve screening, earlier detection, system navigation and front-line decision-making. Used responsibly, this technology can reduce administrative burden, strengthen prevention-focused care and help Albertans access timely, high-quality services closer to home.”

Linke closed the announcement by tying the funding to Amii’s origins. 

“When you look at the history of Amii, it was an ambitious thing back in 2002 for the province to invest in AI,” he said. “We’re excited for what we can do with the province,  and what we’re going to do with this announcement, not just to be the place that powers AI globally, but also the place that produces the researchers, the talent, and the startups that are going to solve the world’s biggest problems right here.”