AI strategies across the Five Eyes nations
Countries around the world are working to develop strategies to capitalise on the benefits of AI while mitigating the risks.
Global Government Forum has rounded up the national AI strategies across the Five Eyes countries – UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – to show where they cover common ground and where they diverge from each other.
This feature forms part of Global Government Forum’s AI Monitor, a monthly newsletter focusing on how governments are using AI. Register here to make sure you receive it every month.
UK’s AI ambition
The UK government’s National AI Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to strengthen investment in innovation and secure public trust in how AI is used. First published in September 2021, it sets out the “UK’s strategic intent to guide action over the next 10 years” across three pillars:
- “Investing in and planning for the long-term needs of the AI ecosystem to continue our leadership as a science and AI superpower.”
- “Supporting the transition to an AI-enabled economy, capturing the benefits of innovation in the UK, and ensuring AI benefits all sectors and regions.”
- “Ensuring the UK gets the national and international governance of AI technologies right to encourage innovation, investment, and protect the public and our fundamental values.”
The UK established an AI Council in 2019 to provide “expert advice to the government and high-level leadership of the AI ecosystem”. It was the council’s central call for the government to develop a National AI Strategy, and since then, it has led the charge to bring the wider AI community together to inform the development of the plan.
The council’s members include “leaders…from across industry, academia and the public sector” who, according to the government website, “meet quarterly to advise the Office for AI and [the] broader government on its current priorities, opportunities and challenges for AI policy”.
In 2021, the council published its AI Roadmap, which consists of 16 recommendations to the government on the strategic direction for AI.
Read more: UK trade union launches campaign to establish AI ground rules for government
US approach
The US federal government’s National AI R&D Strategic Plan (updated 2023) defines what it calls “the major research challenges in AI to coordinate and focus federal R&D investments”.
The aim of the plan is to cement American leadership in the “development and use of trustworthy AI systems” and “prepare the current and future US workforce for the integration of AI systems across all sectors and coordinate ongoing AI activities across all federal agencies”.
The plan incorporates nine strategies, mostly in the field of AI research and development. In brief, they involve:
1: Making long-term investments in “fundamental and responsible AI research”.
2: Developing “effective methods for human-AI collaboration”.
3: Understanding and addressing the “ethical, legal and societal implications of AI”.
4: Ensuring the “safety and security” of AI systems.
5: Developing “shared public datasets and environments” for AI training and testing.
6: Measuring and evaluating AI systems through “standards and benchmarks”.
7: Better understanding the national “AI R&D workforce needs”.
8: Expanding “public-private partnerships to accelerate advances” in AI.
9: Establishing a “principled and coordinated approach to international collaboration” in AI research.
The plan underscores the historical role that federal investments have played in technological breakthroughs. It adds that “strategic” federal investments in responsible AI R&D would advance a “comprehensive” risk assessment of AI over time and prioritise the public good.
Then, in October 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, which was followed a few months later by a policy published by the Office of Management and Budget to guide how federal agencies use AI. It covers AI risk management and governance, and outlines requirements for concrete safeguards and transparency measures. The policy isn’t only about risk; it also highlights the opportunities for AI to address issues such as the climate crisis, public health and public safety and urges agencies to “responsibly experiment” with generative AI. Expanding the AI workforce is an additional priority.
Canada’s AI journey
The Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy is the Government of Canada’s attempt to set out its stall around AI. Canada can boast being the first country in the world to publish a National AI strategy, which it launched in 2017.
The strategy is based on three pillars, rooted in how the government intends to translate AI research into commercial applications and “grow the capacity of businesses to adopt AI technologies”.
The government is supporting this initiative with CAN$60 million (US$43 million) provided in Budget 2021, with each institute eligible to receive up to CAN$20 million (US$11.2 million) in funding over five years, from 2021 to 2026.
The strategy points to several of what the country terms its ‘Global Innovation Clusters’. These include Digital Technology, Protein Industries Canada, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, Scale AI, and Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, all of which the government says are “strengthening Canada’s innovation landscape by promoting the adoption of made-in-Canada artificial intelligence technologies by businesses in key industries, and by public and not-for-profit entities”.
The government is providing CAN$125 million (US$91 million) in Budget 2021 over five years.
Pillar number two relates to standards of practice and is tied to the Standards Council of Canada, through which the government seeks to “advance the development and adoption of standards related to artificial intelligence”.
The government plans to support this initiative with CAN$8.6 million (US$6.2 million) provided in Budget 2021 over five years.
The third and final pillar addresses talent and research. The government says the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is expected to enhance programmes to “attract, retain and develop academic research talent”, and “maintain centres of research and academic training” at the country’s leading AI research centres, including Amii, Mila, and the Vector Institute.
The government is also supporting these initiatives with CAN$208m (US$153m) in funding provided in Budget 2021 over 10 years.
Canada is now in the process of developing an AI strategy to “accelerate responsible AI adoption by the government to enhance productivity, increase the government’s capacity for science and research, and deliver simpler and faster digital services for Canadians and businesses”.
Read more: Canadian government hosts AI strategy roundtable
Australia’s action on AI
In 2021, the Australian government described its “vision” to establish Australia as “a global leader in developing and adopting trusted, secure and responsible AI”.
The government has said that if Australia captures the benefits of transformation, including AI, this could add up to AUS$315bn (US$212bn) to its economy by 2028.
“AI will continue to bolster other digital technologies and elevate human knowledge and capability to new levels. New jobs can flow from this growth, with estimates that by 2034, there could be 1.2 million new technology jobs realised,” it added.
The action plan consists of four focus areas:
- Developing and adopting AI to transform Australian businesses.
- Creating an environment to grow and attract the world’s best AI talent.
- Using cutting-edge AI technologies to solve Australia’s national challenges.
- Making Australia a global leader in responsible and inclusive AI.
Earlier this month, Australian government secretaries signed off an AI policy for the safe and responsible use of the technology in government.
The federal AI policy is due to come into force in September this year and will apply to all non-corporate commonwealth bodies. Responsible for implementing the policy is the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), which will also oversee governance arrangements around adoption of AI tools by departments and agencies.
New Zealand’s plan
New Zealand’s latest Action Plan for the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa (the Māori-language name for New Zealand) was published in September 2022.
The potential impact of AI in government is framed around the need for a “trustworthy and ethical data ecosystem”.
Like others, the government expresses its ambition to make New Zealand “a leading global voice in data governance” that promotes trust and addresses privacy risks, though adds a national flavour of unique “Te Ao Māori perspectives” in the process of supporting “networking and coordination across industry, research bodies and the wider community”.
The government also mentions that it will “explore the merits of a Centre for Data Ethics and AI”, which it adds will make strong contributions to the “Mahi Tika” (Trust) pillar of the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, as well as contribute to “Mahi Ake” (Growth) and “Mahi Tahi” (Inclusion) through enabling new business models and establishing a data ecosystem that works for all.
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
