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ISED | Help define the next chapter of Canada’s AI Leadership

ISED | Help define the next chapter of Canada’s AI Leadership

By Hamidreza Sheshjavani, Policy Advisor, Cultural Policy Hub

This submission responds to the Government of Canada’s 2025 consultation to help define the future of Canada’s AI strategy. It consolidates internal research, survey data and insights and recommendations from roundtables conducted by the Cultural Policy Hub over the past two years. Through its research network, the Hub has convened artists, researchers, technologists, policy leaders and creative industry executives to examine the intersection of AI with both the creative industries and the arts, culture and heritage sectors.

The Hub’s submission argues for the cultural sector and creative industries’ participation in Canada’s AI strategy development across four areas: Cultural Sovereignty & Creative Ambition; Sovereign & Accessible Data; Regulation; and Skills, Training & Education. The document includes several recommendations for consideration that respond to the strategic priorities outlined in ISED’s consultation call. These recommendations are informed by expert perspectives gathered by the Hub in its convenings on AI, and are reinforced by a survey—conducted by the Hub in collaboration with Nordicity in October 2025—that explored how the creative industries are adopting and adapting to AI.

Key recommendations include:

  1. Create a dedicated Creative AI Innovation Fund: Finance public‑private partnerships that accelerate AI‑augmented production pipelines, domestic creative‑software development and shared infrastructure.
  2. Establish a National Cultural Sovereignty Framework: Embed Indigenous, Francophone and diverse community governance into AI policy; mandate collective‑licensing models for AI training; and require explicit consent and metadata protocols for the use of cultural data.
  3. Build an AI commons: Develop compute, data, tools and education made widely accessible so Canadians are not only users but creators.
  4. Launch a comprehensive National AI Literacy Strategy for the Creative Economy: Deliver coordinated K‑12, post‑secondary and lifelong learning programs, as well as public‑facing education campaigns; establish a Cultural AI Advisory Council that ensures creators, educators and Indigenous groups steer AI education, impact assessments and fellowship opportunities.

Read the full submission below:

Download the Report