AIGS Canada Founder and Executive Director Wyatt Tessari L’Allié appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology as part of their study on matters related to the impact of artificial intelligence in Canada. Other witnesses included Nobel prize winner Geoffrey Hinton (first panel) and AI safety expert David Duvenaud.
Full hearing (AIGS opener at 11:39:46): https://senparlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20260227/-1/14953
From AIGS Canada’s opening statement:
“In 2012, researchers under Dr Hinton’s supervision developed a revolutionary technique called deep learning. This powered the era of single-purpose AI tools like Alexa, Google Translate, and social media algorithms, while introducing risks of bias, privacy loss and online echo-chambers.
In 2022, ChatGPT ushered in the era of Generative AI. Chatbots that could answer complex questions, write sections of code, and generate lifelike images and videos. This also brought new challenges to overcome, such as deepfake scams and misinformation, cyberattacks, and chatbots that can talk people into committing harm.
In early 2026, another major jump in capabilities has pushed us firmly into the era of AI agents._ Unlike chatbots that simply respond to a prompt, AI agents are systems that can take actions in the real world, working autonomously for hours and overcoming hurdles along the way. They can for example be used to develop an app from scratch, not only writing the code but opening it and debugging issues until it is functional. Users are also starting to give AI agents access to their computers and credit cards, to do things like manage their emails and calendars, and shop for goods._
This latest jump in capabilities has started to produce loss of control incidents. These include agents stealing passwords, evading shutdown, and harassing developers in order to achieve the often mundane goals they have been given. Agents can also now “jump the digital barrier”, paying or tricking human actors into taking physical actions on their behalf.
The recent increase in AI capabilities is also likely to make weaponisation by bad actors significantly more potent. In November, a leading lab discovered that Chinese state actors had used their tool to not only assist human hackers with a cyberattack, but to actually plan and orchestrate the sophisticated campaign itself.
Currently the most powerful models are developed by leading companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, who place some guardrails on usage. However, open source and open weight models like DeepSeek are only 3-6 months behind and could nullify that lever of governance. With open weight models, users can download, modify and use an AI model with no oversight or accountability.
What all this means is that Canadians could soon face weaponised or malfunctioning AI agents that technologists cannot track or control. With companies racing to make AI fully smarter-than-human, and no enforceable governance framework in place to contain the risks, systemic and potentially permanent loss of control is possible.
Last October we published our white paper titled “Preparing for the AI Crisis: A Plan for Canada.” in which we outlined what actions Canada can take. In light of this latest jump in AI capabilities, we now focus in on three:
- Pivot to meet the AI crisis: The development of advanced AI is the biggest threat to Canadians’ safety, and for that reason alone deserves to be a top priority, But AI will also disrupt almost every other file, from national defense to jobs to healthcare to education to energy and the environment. Much like with COVID in 2020, there are times when the responsible thing for government to do is to pivot to address the developing crisis, and re-assess the priority of other files accordingly.
- Spearhead global talks_ The AI race is global and no country can manage it alone. The world needs leadership, and at Davos Prime Minister Carney showed what Canada can do. Our strongest card is to spearhead global talks and solutions, and to lay the groundwork for an AI treaty that the US and China might sign when the crisis hits and they realise they have no alternative._
- **Build Canada’s resilience: **Build multiple lines of defence against weaponised and malfunctioning AI, including:
- Prevention: limit dangerous systems from being developed and deployed;
- Monitoring: systematically track AI agent activity;
- Defence capacity: develop containment and shutdown protocols to neutralise malicious agents, and
- Emergency preparedness: ensure societal readiness for potential large-scale attacks, and shutdowns of critical infrastructure
Much like the early days of the financial and Covid crises, we face a daunting challenge and a ton of uncertainty. As turbulent as those were, we got through them. If we act quickly and decisively, we can not only mitigate the developing AI crisis, but also ensure that Canadians share in the benefits of this transformational technology.
Thank you. Merci.”