André Côté: Rapidly advancing tech in the face of geopolitics and economic stress

Canada is at a turning point in how it governs the digital economy and artificial intelligence. It must do so in the face of rapidly changing technology – a challenge that’s compounded by geopolitical tensions and economic stress. Over the past few years, Ottawa has attempted to moved quickly on competition law, online harms, and AI. This comes after previous measures on online harms and AI faced criticism and were eventually paused, but these are now back on the table. While it’s clear these areas need attention, there are serious concerns about state overreach, enforcement capacity, and whether we’re regulating technologies we barely understand. At the same time, Canada is facing weak productivity, sluggish innovation, and growing pressure to secure its economic and national security in a more volatile world. To share his perspective on how to navigate this, André Côté joins Inside Policy Talks. Côté serves as interim executive director at the Dias Institute, where he works at the intersection of technology, governance, and public policy. He’s a leading voice on how governments can regulate digital markets and AI with institutional realism, democratic legitimacy, and restraint – without ignoring real harms. On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that Canada’s “deep dependence on foreign tech” is not only an economic issue, “it’s also a deep sovereignty issue for us.”