Minister says he’s working with G7 to set up AI safety organization

Advertisement

Advertise with us

OTTAWA - Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said he spoke with his international counterparts in the G7 on Tuesday about setting up an organization to tackle AI safety.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

OTTAWA – Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said he spoke with his international counterparts in the G7 on Tuesday about setting up an organization to tackle AI safety.

The “technology stability board” would evaluate AI models for testing before they are released to make sure they are “aligned” with what they’re supposed to do, he said.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week it would make sense to create an AI safety board along the lines of the Financial Stability Board, an international group which monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.

Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon speaks during All-In 2026, an artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Montreal on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon speaks during All-In 2026, an artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Montreal on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Such an institution for AI has not yet been launched or announced.

Warnings about the risks AI poses to humans have prompted global alarm in recent weeks.

After an AI researcher who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic claimed those building the technology “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade,” the heads of some of the biggest AI companies in the world said the pace of AI development should be slowed down.

Concern has swirled around AI bots since OpenAI disclosed over the summer that its AI agents hacked AI startup Hugging Face.

Solomon was asked about AI swarms Tuesday. He said that “these are terms to describe the use of AI agents that are used to accomplish tasks,” which is not uncommon.

“The place that this has been very concerning is when AI agents, in numbers, break out of a sandbox and are what’s called misaligned. They do things that they are not asked to do,” Solomon said.

He said the government is aware of situations like the Hugging Face incident and he has spoken about them with international counterparts and with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Solomon said he also convened a meeting with G20 ministers on Friday to talk about safety issues.

He said concerns about “frontier models slipping out of control” are real but not new.

“But where the models are and how fast they’re getting to this point is going very quickly. And so the public is concerned about that, as are we. So we take that incredibly seriously,” he said.

Building safe and reliable AI “will require global regulation in the sense of model testing and evaluation,” Solomon said. “We’re working with our partners to see where this lands.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said Europe will work with countries including Canada on issues like model evaluation, early warnings and AI security.

U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed the mounting calls for regulation are the product of a conspiracy. He repeated his anti-regulation message in a speech at the UN Tuesday and said he would change the term from “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence.”

Solomon declined to comment on that Trump statement Tuesday.

“Canadians are not enthusiastic at all about renaming things, so let me leave that aside. It’s the substance that I think Canadians care about,” he said.

Trump attempted to rebrand Lake Ontario as Lake America after Canada pulled out of trade talks with the United States last month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2026. 

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Disgraced former law dean arrested, facing extradition to Canada

Morgan Modjeski 2 minute read Preview

Disgraced former law dean arrested, facing extradition to Canada

Morgan Modjeski 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 9:17 AM CDT

Jonathan Black-Branch, the disgraced former dean of law at the University of Manitoba, has been arrested in Europe and is awaiting extradition to Canada on fraud charges, Winnipeg police say.

Black-Branch, who failed to defend himself in a lawsuit filed by the U of M and his disbarment proceedings, was ordered in May 2025 to repay more than $682,000 in misspent expense funds.

Winnipeg police confirmed his arrest and pending extradition Wednesday morning. “The extradition process is ongoing,” police said.

Black-Branch left the university in 2020 amid allegations he had misspent public dollars and schemed to evade oversight while running Robson Hall from 2016 to 2020.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 9:17 AM CDT

What’s up: Wine fest, Pulp, Prohibition Party, Teddy Bears’ Picnic, Savant Flâneur, Osani album release

6 minute read Preview

What’s up: Wine fest, Pulp, Prohibition Party, Teddy Bears’ Picnic, Savant Flâneur, Osani album release

6 minute read 6:00 AM CDT

Winnipeg Wine FestivalRBC Convention Centre, 375 York Ave.Friday, 7-10 p.m. and Saturday, 1-4 p.m. and 7-10 p.m.Tickets from $88 hereBig, hearty red wines take centre stage at the RBC Convention Centre this weekend, as the Winnipeg Wine Festival returns with the theme “Life is a Cabernet.”

Three sessions over two days will see hundreds of wines being popped and poured for thousands of thirsty Winnipeggers at the public tastings, with around 60 Cabernet Sauvignons available to be sampled alongside other reds as well as bubblies, rosés, white wines and more.

As well as tried-and-true favourites, there will be plenty of products (Cabernet Sauvignon and otherwise) that are new to the province and/or exclusive to the festival from Italy, Chile, Australia, Germany, France and beyond, with a handful of export managers and winemakers on hand to talk about the wines and answer questions about featured products.

Beyond wine, the fest will feature a Drink Sense non-alcoholic booth, a bistro, a silent disco, a Malibu Pink booth and other fun surprises. And for those who discover a new favourite or two, the festival again features an on-site Liquor Mart. (Of note: unlike last year’s Winnipeg Wine Festival, the city’s eight private wine stores are not participating.)

Read
6:00 AM CDT

Manitoba’s small oil, gas sector lists 31 ownerless sites — far cry from thousands in Alberta, Saskatchewan

Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview

Manitoba’s small oil, gas sector lists 31 ownerless sites — far cry from thousands in Alberta, Saskatchewan

Eva Wasney 7 minute read 7:00 AM CDT

As other western provinces struggle to address the environmental and economic fallout from an accumulation of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells, only a tiny portion of Manitoba’s petroleum infrastructure is sitting idle and unclaimed.

But it’s unclear if the province’s small roster of orphan wells is the byproduct of effective regulation — or an historic lack of departmental oversight.

Manitoba’s oil and gas industry is relatively small and generally opaque. None of the experts contacted for this story had direct knowledge of the province’s orphan well landscape.

“My lab has probably measured the most non-producing wells in the country. I don’t think anybody I know is working on it (in Manitoba) who are in the academic realm,” says Mary Kang, an associate professor in civil engineering at McGill University in Montreal.

Read
7:00 AM CDT

Health Canada suspends plasma collection at Grifols Taylor Avenue clinic

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Preview

Health Canada suspends plasma collection at Grifols Taylor Avenue clinic

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:47 PM CDT

Health Canada has suspended all plasma collection at Grifols’ Taylor Avenue facility while the private company continues to face scrutiny after two people died following donations at its Winnipeg clinics.

The suspension began Wednesday, although Grifols paused plasma collection in Canada on Aug. 14, two days after the federal department gave the Taylor Avenue site a non-compliant rating.

“Health Canada issued the suspension because Grifols had not effectively implemented some corrective and preventive actions and, overall, it failed to demonstrate that the Taylor Avenue site has implemented an effective quality management system,” the department said in a statement.

The penalty was first proposed Aug. 13. The site’s operating licence was partially suspended, Grifols said in a statement.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 5:47 PM CDT

Revealing statements by Trump about courts

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Revealing statements by Trump about courts

Editorial 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Analyzing the utterances of U.S. President Donald Trump may seem like the ultimate sort of mug’s game — they are varied, contradictory, rambling, pugilistic, sometimes wheedling and the list goes on.

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

If you feel stuck on repeat, reach out for advice

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My ex-mother-in-law and I ran into each other at a political do and had a great old time. I like her much better now than when I was married to her daughter. But she enjoyed mentioning that her daughter is now much happier in her new marriage to someone other than me. That’s rude, but I was actually happy to hear it.

Then she had the nerve to ask me if I felt better-suited to my new wife, and I said, “No, because she’s a lot like your daughter.” That was an awful thing for me to finally realize fully, and in front of my ex-mother-in-law.

Is it true people keep marrying the same type of person over and over again, and just keep trying to do better each time?

— Lying Awake, Tuxedo