Federal officials are being warned that artificial intelligence could give internet giants like Facebook and Amazon even more power to reshape the Canadian economy, threatening the viability of domestic businesses.

A December presentation to senior civil servants said that Canadian companies were losing ownership of and access to data to the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, requiring a federal policy response.

Artificial intelligence 鈥渨ill reinforce this trend,鈥� presenters from the National Research Council warned top officials, adding that a national data strategy was necessary to prevent Canada from becoming 鈥渁 nation of 鈥榙ata cows鈥� for other countries.鈥�

The presentation, among other documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, provides a window into the scale of the problem the Liberals are trying to tackle by crafting a national data strategy, and the breadth of departments involved in its creation.

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The Liberals took another step towards the creation of the strategy by launching online and in-person consultations that will run through the summer, and feed into a final policy.

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains wouldn鈥檛 say what might be a final strategy, or when it might be finalized.

The Canadian Press

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