If Canada wants its economic productivity to improve with AI usage, it needs to boost AI adoption at small and medium companies, the senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada said at an event at the University of Toronto. “If all gains are concentrated in big companies, big companies don’t have incentive to translate that into lower prices or higher wages, they’ll just reap the profits.” (The Logic)

Talking point: Rogers said the Bank of Canada has been asking businesses how widely their workers are using AI, but it’s hard to tell whether those that say yes just mean that “everybody has ChatGPT on their terminals,” or whether businesses are changing their systems more deeply. Rogers acknowledged that it would be difficult for Canada to match the level of AI investment in the U.S, noting there is a lot of “FOMO” in capital markets around AI investing. But she also said if Canadians wait for “clear and uncontestable proof that AI produces productivity increases,” the country will fall too far behind. “We are going to have to take a leap of faith and have a bit of courage as a country” when it comes to AI, she said.