Big opportunities from Canada's top investors, operators and founders

“The allure of international markets often tempts Canadian founders to relocate, particularly within the tech industry where early-stage ventures seek robust support and investment.

A notable instance in 2023 involved the founders of a Toronto-based AI startup, who, while in the process of capital raising, received a compelling proposition from a major US VC to move their operations stateside. This scenario underscores a recurring challenge: the potential brain drain and loss of innovative ventures that could flourish within Canada's unique ecosystem. Therein lies an opportunity to enhance the support structure for Canadian entrepreneurs.”

“Corporations are increasingly cautious about integrating Generative AI (GenAI) technologies due to a lack of intuitive tools for comprehensive oversight, making it challenging to understand and monitor the processes and outcomes of these AI models.

In order for GenAI tools to fully realize their potential of yielding material productivity gains, they need access to a large portion of a corporation's files, documents, and data. This raises the stakes when it comes to thinking about the risks of a data leak resulting from a security vulnerability in the AI tool, as a result of the model secretly uses the data for training and subsequently regurgitating parts of it to other users, and so on. The issue is that a non-technical buyer is not in a position to form an intuition around how likely or unlikely any of these events are to happen; to many of them, these AI tools and how far their access goes into their systems are very nebulous and inscrutable concepts. Together, this results in longer, more drawn out decision processes and, thereby, sales cycles. So, I believe that what is needed to resolve this issue is to give corporations a sense of control and oversight.”

"In the rapidly evolving gaming industry and creator economy, the rise of user-generated content (UGC) platforms and games leveraging generative AI presents a growing challenge of intellectual property (IP) infringement.

This issue not only threatens the integrity of creative works but also the legal and ethical frameworks within these digital spaces. There's a significant opportunity to innovate by developing sophisticated IP protection solutions tailored for UGC platforms and AI-generated content, ensuring creators can safely share their work without the risk of unauthorized use or infringement."

“The management of a core commodity - electricity - is at a unique point in time. On one hand, the shift towards renewable energy production affects the topology, composition and dynamics of the electricity grid.

On the other hand, electricity consumption patterns are drastically changing given the rise of AI (data center usage) and the electrification of the transport sector along with residential & commercial buildings. Umbrellaing that is a stark increase of climate variability (winter 2024 in Canada anyone?) affecting the supply, demand and distribution of electricity. Rapid changes on all three fronts will present opportunities for innovative founders to create massive businesses.”

“The rise of Dark LLMs poses a significant cybersecurity threat, with experts projecting a substantial increase in global cybercrime costs. Hackers are adept at leveraging advanced tools like Large Language Models (LLMs) to automate various malicious activities, including email and SMS phishing, social engineering attacks, fraudulent financial transactions, and identity theft.

To counter these threats, there is an urgent need to enhance cybersecurity measures, particularly in areas where human interaction is crucial. By harnessing the capabilities of LLMs for detection and mitigation strategies, stakeholders can fortify defenses against evolving cyber threats and safeguard critical digital infrastructure. Collaboration and investment in innovative cybersecurity solutions are essential to mitigate the risks associated with Dark LLM exploitation and uphold the integrity of digital ecosystems.”