Alberta to invest $50 million into Amii over five years

Alberta will put $50 million into the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) over five years, the province announced this morning. Premier Danielle Smith made the announcement at Platform Calgary.

Five provincial ministries are contributing to the funding. The Ministry of Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Advanced Education are each giving $15 million. The Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services is pledging $10 million. Primary and Preventative Health Services and the Ministry of Education and Childcare are each contributing $5 million.

“Alberta began investing in AI research more than two decades ago. That early bet paid off,” Nate Glubish, Alberta’s minister of technology and innovation, said in a news release. “This $50 million investment … will put AI to work for the people of this province.”

Since 2002, Alberta has put more than $100 million into Amii. The institute, one of Canada’s three premier AI research hubs, now has 71 fellows and 500 researchers, including Turing Award-winner Richard Sutton. The latest $50 million will continue that investment, with a focus on applying Amii’s research to public services, healthcare, and workforce preparation, according to the provincial government. The province did not detail what those applications would look like. Betakit asked Amii for more specifics but has not yet heard back.

The $50 million is roughly half of all the money Alberta has put into Amii over the past 24 years. The funding comes days after the province announced money through Emissions Reduction Alberta to use AI in drilling technology for oil, gas, and geothermal purposes. The large investment, relative to the past nearly quarter-century of funding, shows Alberta’s growing focus on the sector.