Aidan Gomez
Co-founder and CEO, Cohere
Builder
Why they matterCo-authored the Transformer paper. Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha into a Toronto and Berlin company.
Apr 2026: Cohere and Aleph Alpha announce merger
Who’s shaping AI in Canada
The builders, researchers, policymakers, investors, explainers and critics moving AI forward in Canada. Every entry links to a source and to the moments on our timeline.
- People
- 6
- Global leaders from here
- 2
- Timeline events
- 2
- Last checked
- 2 Oct 2026
Richard Sutton
Professor, University of Alberta. Chief Scientific Advisor, Amii
Researcher
Why they matterReinforcement learning pioneer. Won the 2024 Turing Award, announced Mar 2025.
Mar 2025: Turing Award announced
Evan Solomon
Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation
Policymaker
Why they matterCanada's first federal AI minister. Launched the national "AI for All" strategy in Jun 2026.
Jun 2026: "AI for All" strategy launched
Jordan Jacobs
Managing Partner, Radical Ventures
Investor
Why they matterCo-founded Radical Ventures, an early backer of Cohere. Its Breakouts Fund raised over US$1B.
Sep 2026: Radical Breakouts Fund passes US$1B
Taylor Owen
Beaverbrook Chair, McGill University. Host, Machines Like Us
Explainer
Why they matterHosts the Globe and Mail podcast Machines Like Us, interviewing AI builders and lawmakers.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Vass Bednar
Managing Director, Canadian SHIELD Institute
Critic & watchdog
Why they matterCriticised "AI for All" for assuming adoption brings prosperity and leaving privacy law for later.
Checked 2 Oct 2026
Global leaders from Canada
Yoshua Bengio
Scientific Director, LawZero. Professor, Université de Montréal
Researcher
Why they matterChairs the International AI Safety Report and co-chairs the UN Scientific Panel on AI.
Jul 2026: UN Scientific Panel's first report
Geoffrey Hinton
University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
Critic & watchdog
Why they matterLeft Google in May 2023 to speak about AI risk. Shared the 2024 Nobel in Physics.
May 2023: leaves Google to warn about AI risk
On the AIooze timeline