This week, AI research firm Transluce dropped a line to the Canadian government, letting it know that unidentified AI agents had tried to hack Library and Archives Canada over the summer. While the government says there’s “no indication” the federal institute’s data was compromised, the event is just the latest in a laundry list of “rogue AI” incidents, including the Hugging Face fiasco and reports that OpenAI agents hacked into Australian medical and bushfire databases in June. Experts have cautioned that those incidents could become more frequent and more severe.
AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio recently pleaded with the United Nations Security Council for greater AI oversight from governments, but while the Canadian government has said plenty about adoption, it’s said less about making sure that adoption is safe and secure. Prime Minister Mark Carney has signed an international statement on AI safety, Bengio has landed a seat on Carney’s new advisory council, and AI Minister Evan Solomon has floated the idea of a “technology stability board” akin to the Financial Stability Board. But those moves appear to be little more than diffuse allusions to cooperation and dialogue.
Perhaps the clearest sign of how the feds plan to handle AI regulation came last month, when, amid growing backlash against data centres, Ottawa announced responsible data centre guidelines. Far from a toothy regulation, the framework was entirely voluntary. A technology stability board is theoretical at this point, and would only be substantive if AI’s two leading nations—China and the US—buy in, which the latter doesn’t seem poised to do.
The government has spent the better part of the past year championing the AI industry as an emergent economic engine. It’s not clear, however, that it’s been as thoughtful on the potential economic outcome if the next attack—against, say, the treasury, the CRA, or even the Department of National Defence—is successful.
Jesse Cole,
Prairies Reporter
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Top stories from BetaKit
Shovels down, rockets up
As it aims to build a sovereign alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Canada Rocket Company has broken ground on what it claims will be Canada’s first large-scale, static rocket engine test facility on the outskirts of London, Ontario.
In Québec City, Femtum opened a new factory to build more of its semiconductor-trimming lasers so its chipmaker customers can keep up with the data centre boom.
The big leagues
Since its founding in 2021, Brodie Rec has blossomed from facilitating local recreational basketball games in Toronto to running what it claims is the world’s largest rec basketball league. The app wants to give players their own jerseys, stat lines, and highlight reels in 100 North American cities by the end of 2027.
Alberta’s AI gold rush
Alberta added a handful of new projects to its list of proposed data centre developments this week. Companies are eyeing the province as a place to set up shop, but the surge in interest has some municipalities grappling with how to balance development and public concern.
Canada’s newest unicorn
Biossil has raised $153 million USD to give more discarded drug candidates an AI-assisted second chance. The OpenAI-led round values the Toronto-based startup at $1 billion USD.
Peripheral’s Emmy-winning CPO
Toronto AI startup Peripheral Labs has brought on former Meta Reality Labs head of product Shaun Carrigan as its first chief product officer and tasked him with bringing its spatial intelligence tech to the sports market. Carrigan, a veteran sports tech leader, has led production of the Olympics and won five Emmy Awards for technical innovation.
Sponsored stories
The infrastructure tipping point for growing tech companies
Dedicatted operates as a managed service provider (MSP) that transitioned its lab research of infrastructure reliability, incident response, and security to enable growing tech companies to keep their internal teams focused on product development.
How founders are rethinking capital in the AI era
On a recent episode of CIBC’s Gradient Ascent Podcast, tech leaders discussed how AI is enabling early-stage startups to run more experiments before raising venture capital, while shifting investor focus toward long-term value and sustainable unit economics.
Deals and dollars
Who’s cashing in, or out, this week:
- Well Health’s software spin-out Wellstar began trading on the TSXV. (Vancouver)
- Clio acquired New York-based Learned Hand as it builds out its offering for judges. (Burnaby)
- Led by a former General Fusion employee, Daedal Systems raised $4 million USD to build plasma measurement systems for fusion companies. (Toronto)
- AI-powered digital twin software provider ThoughtWire is exploring a sale after entering creditor protection. (Toronto)
- Shopify purchased the Shop.com domain for an undisclosed amount. (Ottawa)
- H2 Analytics secured $800,000 in repayable federal funding to integrate new AI features into its defence training platform. (Ottawa)
- Quantum eMotion agreed to acquire fellow publicly traded Canadian cybersecurity firm Plurilock for nearly $34 million CAD. (Montréal/Victoria)
- PurposeMed, parent of telehealth company Freddie, agreed to be acquired by gay-focused dating platform Grindr for $250 million USD. (Calgary)
Main Character
Read more on BetaKit.
The refresh
Who does Mark Carney really listen to?
There’s little doubt Prime Minister Mark Carney has remade the Liberal government, but what does that look like? Speaking to insiders for the Toronto Star, Justin Ling identifies Carney’s inner circle and his efforts to transform the government to operate more like a business, complete with a COO and a sharp tone in boardroom meetings.
AI agents can create real value across industries, but building one that is secure, reliable, and ready for production requires significant engineering capacity.
A travel technology company asked Chrono Innovation to build a production multi-agent system without pulling its developers away from the core roadmap. Chrono handled the entire project, from architecture to production.
The system reached production 15 months sooner than the company’s internal forecast, with 81 percent less engineering effort. The company gained the new capability faster while keeping its team focused on its highest-priority work.
See how an AI-native team builds what a traditional one can’t.
BetaKit Podcast · Oct 4
“Transformative technology doesn’t become transformative when we invent it. It becomes transformative when we adopt it.”
AI and quantum are two potentially transformative technologies at very different stages of development. Leaders from Xanadu, Nord Quantique, IonQ, and CGI discuss where they intersect live on stage at ALL IN 2026. Watch/Listen now ›
Contributors: Alex Riehl (Ottawa staff writer), Douglas Soltys (editor in chief), Jesse Cole (Prairies reporter), Sarah Rieger (managing editor), Trevor Nichols (web editor).
Feature image courtesy Pexels. Photo by Ella Wei.