New AI research

Mila · Vector · Amii

Mila in Montreal, Vector in Toronto, and Amii in Edmonton are Canada's federally designated AI research institutes. Together they anchor Canada's AI research strength and train talent used by labs, companies, and public institutions.

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Topic overview

Briefing summary

Canada's national AI research network rests on three institutes: Mila in Montreal, the Vector Institute in Toronto, and Amii, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, in Edmonton. Together they hold many Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, train many Canadian AI graduate students, and anchor the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy's talent work.

The three institutes train many of Canada's future AI researchers and applied AI workers.
Their joint federal funding shows how Canada is trying to compete with much larger US and Chinese research spending.
Each institute anchors a regional AI network - Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton-Calgary - so their health shapes startups, private investment, and business use of AI across three different economies.

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Mila, founded by Yoshua Bengio, is the largest of the three by headcount and publication output. It is linked to Universite de Montreal and McGill, with close partnerships to HEC Montreal and Polytechnique. Its work includes deep learning foundations, climate, health, and responsible AI.

The Vector Institute in Toronto was founded in 2017 with a focus on applied research and industry engagement. It is now beside the University of Toronto and works with Canadian banks, telecom firms, and health systems. Its applied MSc and affiliate programmes are major pathways into Canadian AI teams.

Amii in Edmonton grew out of the University of Alberta and is closely tied to Richard Sutton's reinforcement-learning school. It has deep strength in decision-making systems and applied partnerships across energy, agriculture, and public services in the Prairies.

The institutes do not all do the same work. They share the Canada CIFAR AI Chairs programme, coordinate on talent through CIFAR, and increasingly work together on AI safety, computing access, and federal submissions. After September 2025 consultations on the next Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, watching the three together gives a clearer picture than watching any one alone.

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Key people

Yoshua Bengio - Founder and Scientific Advisor - Mila - now also leads AI-safety nonprofit LawZero
Hugo Larochelle - Scientific Director - Mila
Valerie Pisano - President and CEO - Mila
Glenda Crisp - President and CEO - Vector Institute
Cam Linke - CEO - Amii
Richard Sutton - Chief Scientific Advisor - Amii

Key organisations

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