Government gives U of A $3 million boost for AI compute vault

The University of Alberta has received $3 million for the Canadian AI Compute Vault (CAICV) initiative from the Government of Canada through the Regional Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initiative. The initiative will deliver secure compute power to Canadian start-ups in the AI industry.

Solange Gagnebin works in the U of A’s engineering department and leads the Industry Sandbox for AI Computing (ISAIC). She will also lead the CAICV project.

For small- to medium-sized companies trying to get their start in AI, finding or building the secure compute required for their work can be expensive. CAICV will provide secure, low-cost compute power to Canadian companies.

“As we are trying to support small- and medium-sized businesses, it has to be at a lower price point,” she explained. “The only way of doing that is by having subsidized prices due to the help of the federal and provincial government creating those kind of programs.”

But Gagnebin said the idea isn’t to compete with for-profit businesses. CAICV will partner with companies and the government to encourage development and get smaller businesses on their feet.

“We are trying to support them at the critical moment when they need a little support,” Gagnebin said.

Having up-and-coming companies partnering with the U of A will also provide opportunities for students. 

Gagnebin said that students often look for industry experience in their degrees, but it can be difficult to find. However, the companies developing their products through CAICV will also be looking for help.

“We will help those companies to find co-op students, … interns, and graduate students here at the university when they need extra help for developing … their products,” she said.

The companies will also have greater access to researchers and academics in the AI field.

Canada is well-positioned to address ethical and governance concerns, Gagnebin says

It will take about two years for CAICV to be fully certified and ready to begin working with companies. The initiative will have a high level of security certification. That extra security is required for AI being developed in the areas of defence, health, and oil and gas.

Gagnebin said it’s important for Canada to develop compute power of this kind on Canadian soil.

She’s seen AI accelerate rapidly over the past couple of years, especially in the United States (U.S.). U.S.-based companies have access to resources that allow them to push their products faster than Canadian companies. But working at a slower speed isn’t always a bad thing, Gagnebin explained. 

“There are huge issues about ethics,” she explained. “I think Canada in general is really well-positioned to tackle those kind of governance [and] ethics discussions because we saw the U.S. already made their stand. They don’t care.”

These issues highlight the need for data sovereignty and security in Canada, Gagnebin explained.

CAICV will also differ physically from hyper-scale data centres that the U.S. and for-profit companies often build. It will not be a hyper-scale data centre. Collectively, CAICV’s footprint will be quite large, Gagnebin explained, but the servers will be scattered across different locations on campus.

The university is also looking to improve AI data centres and compute’s demand for power and water. Data centres use a lot of electricity to run and also require cooling technologies. Gagnebin said the U of A is talking with companies that use little to no water in their cooling systems. 

The government funding won’t cover the entire cost of CAICV, but gives the project a much-needed boost, Gagnebin said. She did not provide an estimated cost of the project.