February 23, 2026

AI Panic Won’t Help Canada Compete

By Sayan Navaratnam

We are living in a time of transformation spurred by the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Much of the commentary on this topic seems to jump to worst-case scenarios such as market crashes, job loss, plagiarism and AI-fuelled propaganda. This framing overlooks the positive value that AI can bring to society. Telling the full story about this amazing technology is more difficult but essential to build the skills that are necessary to help workers adapt and keep jobs in Canada.

AI isn’t a runaway train headed for collapse. It is a new and powerful tool that can achieve advancements in medicine, increased productivity, and workplace optimization. We must be prepared to adapt or risk being left behind.

A closer look at the most common concerns about AI proves that they all have solutions.

“AI will crash the market.”

We must not confuse the term “AI” with “speculation.”

Markets don’t crash because technology exists. Markets crash when people pile into hype, leverage it, and pretend risk disappeared. The dot-com era taught us a valuable lesson: the bubble burst, the internet did not. The solution wasn’t to ban websites; it was to stop pricing fantasy like it is cash flow.

Most AI investment is based on the fundamentals like infrastructure spending, software development, workflow redesign, and skills training. The leaders in AI are some of the largest and most valuable technology conglomerates like Google and Microsoft. Their rapid growth in the AI sector is not the sign of a bubble; it is the sign of a healthy economy that is working to become more productive.

Of course, there will always be overvalued companies. That is not a sign of a future collapse. It is a reminder to do what investors are supposed to do: value real earnings, demand real proof, and don’t confusing momentum with fundamentals.

“AI will wipe out jobs.”

It is understandable to worry that AI will result in mass unemployment. This is the fear that hits closest to home because it could affect every one of us. It is true that some tasks will disappear, and some roles will shrink. Helping our businesses and workers to develop the advanced skills they need to adapt to the transformation taking place will create high-value, high-paying jobs in Ontario that might otherwise be lost overseas by keeping us competitive.

AI will not simply delete work. AI will reshape work.

AI will punish people and companies that refuse to adapt. It will reward those who train, re-skill, and redesign jobs around what humans do best: judgment, trust, creativity, leadership, and relationship-building.

“AI will become self-controlling and self-defending.”

It sounds like science fiction, but some people fear that AI could take over the world. It is also an easy narrative to sell, because just about everyone has seen movies like “I, Robot” or “2001: A Space Odyssey” so it doesn’t require much imagination.

But in the real world, AI systems don’t just escape into autonomy. They function with constraints, logging, monitoring, audits, access controls, and, most importantly, accountability.

The idea that AI will control society ignores how technology is actually adopted through policy, procurement rules, liability, courts, and public scrutiny. Oversight is necessary, as it is for all aspects of business and governance. Intelligent and informed planning and a commitment to our shared values will ensure that AI is used as a tool that benefits humankind.

“AI will make plagiarism unstoppable.”

AI can create shortcuts for students and professionals alike. All new technology has had this effect from smartphones to the internet to Google. As a result, educational institutions are constantly updating their policies and academic standards. Employers update expectations and look for ways that employees can use new tools to become more productive. The world adapts.

The world is adapting to AI just as it adapted to earlier innovations. Legal and technical guardrails are getting stronger. Courts are actively wrestling with how generative AI intersects with copyright and training data, and early rulings show the direction is neither “anything goes” nor “shut it all down” but an enforceable middle where misuse has consequences. Nothing is truly unstoppable. Early recognition of risks and implementation of measures to address them will ensure that the transition to this new economy will make us stronger.

“AI will supercharge propaganda by dictatorships.”

The risk of the proliferation of AI propaganda is real, but AI can also be used as a weapon to defeat it.

Deepfakes and synthetic content can be used to mislead voters, target communities, and manipulate information ecosystems. Canada’s cyber security guidance has explicitly warned that deepfakes are being used globally to spread disinformation through fake audio and video. 

AI provides a critical defense as detection models improve, platform policies are refined and provenance tools expand. Governments and institutions are creating strategies to combat AI propaganda that have AI defenses at their core.

We must take action as early as possible to teach necessary skills and develop the necessary tools. That means media literacy in schools, stronger authentication standards, and consequences for coordinated disinformation campaigns. We have the knowledge and expertise in Canada to create our own solutions.