National security threat from superintelligent AI ‘currently unaddressed’ in national AI strategy, warns advocacy group
Canada’s recently released national strategy for artificial intelligence doesn’t go far enough when it comes to addressing the potential security and existential risks associated with thinking machines that could one day surpass human intelligence, according to the group that's been most active in discussing AI with the federal government this year.
“Canada should recognize superintelligence as the global and national security threat that it is, and begin working with international partners to negotiate a multilateral 'trust but verify' regime prohibiting superintelligence development. We should help build this regime and be prepared to enforce it,” said Samuel Buteau, consulting program officer in Canada for ControlAI, in an emailed statement to The Hill Times on Aug. 27.
Advocacy in the first half of 2026 related to AI reached its peak in May—the month before the Liberal government released its national AI strategy—with 178 communication reports listing the subject for that month. Between January and the end of July, ControlAI—an advocacy group operating in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany—filed 94 communication reports related to AI, which is more than double the number of reports filed addressing that subject by the next leading organizations, Facebook Canada and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).
On its website, ControlAI argues that superintelligent AI—which it describes as “AI that can fully replace and outmatch humans at any task”—could be developed within four years, and that currently no measures exist to contain or control such a system.
“Nobel Prize winners, leading AI scientists, and even the CEOs of the top AI companies themselves have repeatedly warned that superintelligent AI would pose an extinction risk to humanity,” said Buteau in the emailed statement.
Expert estimates vary for when artificial superintelligence may be developed. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said in an interview with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network in 2025 that he would be "very surprised" if the technology didn't exist by 2030. However, Cem Dilmegani, principal analyst at AIMultiple, released an analysis on Aug 13, 2026, of surveys involving more than 6,000 AI researchers and experts who estimated a 50-per-cent probability of achieving artificial general intelligence between 2040 and 2061, with some estimating that superintelligence could follow within a few decades.
On its website, ControlAI notes that incidents of “rogue” AI escaping their developers’ containment have already been documented, and warns AI will only become more powerful and capable going forward. The organization is pushing for Canada to become the lead of a coalition of countries focused on preventing the development of superintelligent AI through an international ban.
Supporters of ControlAI’s campaign include Liberal MP Judy Sgro (Humber River—Black Creek, Ont.), Conservative MP William Stevenson (Yellowhead, Alta.), Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux (Drummond, Que.), and CSG Senator Colin Deacon (Nova Scotia), who are listed on the organization’s website.
Canada's national AI strategy, AI for All, was launched on June 4. The document states the strategy is expected to lead to economic growth of $200-billion of economic growth, and create 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years. It has the goal of increasing AI adoption to 60 per cent by 2034.
Canada currently does not have any legislation that prohibits the development of artificial superintelligence. Buteau said by email that if superintelligence were developed anywhere on Earth, "Canada’s sovereignty would be stripped away."
"Domestically, Canada should enact legislation that prohibits the development of superintelligence, while backing all valid AI applications. Internationally, Canada should lead the effort to halt that race to superintelligence,” wrote Buteau.
ControlAI is represented on the federal lobbyists’ registry in-house by Andrea Miotti, founder and CEO.
In July, ControlAI communicated with seven MPs, including Jacques Ramsay (La Prairie—Atateken, Que.), parliamentary secretary to the public safety minister, on July 8; Conservative MP Rhonda Kirkland (Oshawa, Ont.) on July 13; and Conservative MP Grant Jackson (Brandon—Souris, Man.) on July 21.
AI is ‘tackling urgent health care challenges,’ but new tech ‘comes with risks,’ says CMA
The CMA filed 42 communication reports related to AI between January and July. The organization states on its website that tools driven by AI are useful for tackling health care challenges, such as helping to detect diseases, boosting surgical performance, and cutting down on paperwork, but also warned that new technology comes with risks. According to the CMA, regulation regarding patient consent and privacy remains unclear, and other issues that need to be addressed include potential bias in data, the shareability of information generated by AI, and the burden of liability.
Bolu Ogunyemi, CMA’s president, told The Hill Times another potential concern with AI relates to de-skilling.
“The more and more we rely on AI to do things, especially in the phase of training in general, I think we can rightfully anticipate people will have fewer skills in the particular areas that AI is assisting with,” he said.
Ogunyemi said that while there are principles used in Canada to govern AI in health care, there isn’t a national framework, and added that CMA is currently working on an AI policy.
“We've proposed that the federal government invest in AI in health, [and] have a specific fund so that we can find ways that AI can be used safely, whether as scribes or in clinical decision-making,” he said.
“And then once we find what works, replicate it."
In regard to Canada’s national AI strategy, Ogunyemi said in a June 4 statement that the strategy would “expand AI use in health care while ensuring strong protections for Canadians.”
“AI is already showing promise in reducing doctors’ administrative work, improving system efficiency and supporting clinical decision-making, but it also presents health care risks that must be urgently addressed with strong guard rails,” he said in the statement.
“We welcome the introduction of strong protections to safeguard Canadians, particularly children, against AI risks and online harms, while supporting access to accurate, trusted health information.”
The CMA is represented on the registry by in-house by Ogunyemi, CEO Alex Munter, and board members including Jean-Joseph Conde and Margot Burnell. The organization is also represented by consultants Avneet Dhaliwal of Santis Health, and Elizabeth Gray-Smith of Gray-Smith communications.
UrbanLogiq Inc., a Vancouver-based software firm that provides an AI-powered data analytics platform for governments, filed 24 communication reports related to AI to the registry between January and July.
Michael Lee, UrbanLogiq’s chief strategy officer, told The Hill Times that the group’s communications have involved how to support Ottawa in its digital transformation, including how to utilize data analytics, and include machine-learning and other AI-type solutions that could improve efficiency.
“When we're talking about, for example, emergency management, disaster recovery, planning for wildfires, or other climate-impacted changes in our communities that we've seen, it's been another challenging summer, to say the least,” said Lee. “We have been deploying, for example, in the [American] state of Minnesota, a fire risk assessment tool, which enables urban fire departments to better focus their resources, both personnel and equipment.”
“We believe that's just another example of where those types of data platforms can shift the use of a fire department's resources from a reactive response to a more predictive action,” he added.
Lee appeared before the House Industry and Technology Committee on May 28, offering recommendations on how to better enable responsible and effective AI adoption in governments.
“One, invest in data integration before AI model investment. Two, mandatory auditability standards with immutable audit trails, model output lineage and explainability requirements should be procurement criteria. Three, require workforce plans with phased rollouts as a condition of government AI contracts. Four, mandate structural AI governance, including risk-calibrated controls, as a condition of government AI contracts,” Lee told the committee in May.
“The evidence is already in the field: a fire chief acting on risk data before a fire happens, a planner evaluating a decade of infrastructure decisions in an afternoon and a land administrator assessing approvals across jurisdictions in minutes rather than months. That is not what AI might do. It is what responsible AI is doing right now.”
UrbanLogiq is represented on the registry by consultants Patrick Weeks, Cassandra Almeida, and Jared Maltais of Wellington Advocacy. The organization’s advocacy activity have included communication with Liberal MP Parm Bains (Richmond East—Steveston, B.C.) on April 29; and with Taleeb Noormohamed (Vancouver Granville, B.C.), parliamentary secretary to the AI minister, on June 10.
The Hill Times
Most active organizations lobbying about AI
| Organization | Communication reports |
| Secure Future Research LTD. DBA Control AI | 94 |
| Facebook Canada | 44 |
| Canadian Medical Association | 42 |
| Cohere | 26 |
| Simon Fraser University | 26 |
| UrbanLogiq Inc. | 24 |
| Google Canada Corporation | 21 |
| University of Alberta | 21 |
| Digital Research Alliance of Canada | 19 |
This table shows the organizations that filed the most communication reports for advocacy activity related to AI between January and July 2026 based on a search of the federal lobbyists’ registry on Aug. 25, 2026.