The Liberals’ promise to promote artificial-intelligence use—mainly by helping Canadian firms pay for computing power—must not get bogged down in the mire that slows a lot of government spending, Treasury Board President Anita Anand told a conference on AI adoption on Wednesday in Ottawa. “We now need to stay competitive with the U.K. and the U.S. and other jurisdictions who are making bold moves,” she said. (The Logic)

Talking point: “We need, as a government, to do a more efficient job to ensure that funding gets out the door,” Anand said at industry group Technation’s event. (Two examples she could have cited: the flagship Strategic Innovation Fund got off to a slow start, and a program to help businesses digitize closed early with billions unspent.) Within the government, generative AI can help public servants deliver services faster and make Canada more productive, Anand said, and she pointed to a guide for government workers as evidence of her department’s eagerness to use the new technology.