AI's power, pitfalls, and potential

AI's power, pitfalls, and potential

From Disruptors by RBC Thought Leadership, John Stackhouse

April 14, 2026 · 34 min · Season 10 · Episode 7

About this episode

The episode discusses the trustworthiness and safety of AI, featuring insights from experts on its implications for society and Canada’s AI strategy.

We’re all using AI more, but how many of us actually trust it? AI is now used by more than a billion people worldwide, but trust in these systems is far from settled. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse speaks with Yoshua Bengio, Turing Award winner, founder of Mila, and Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, about whether AI is getting safer or more dangerous as it becomes more powerful, more agentic, and more embedded in work, public systems, and everyday life. They explore LawZero’s mission to build non-agentic, trustworthy AI, including Scientist AI, and why Bengio believes the next generation of artificial intelligence should be designed to reason, evaluate, and supervise rather than independently pursue goals. John is also joined by Jaxson Khan, Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, to discuss AI sovereignty, the risks of dependence on foreign cloud and compute infrastructure, and what Canada should be thinking about as it prepares its next national AI strategy. This is a conversation about AI safety, Canadian AI sovereignty, trustworthy AI, and who should shape the systems that are increasingly shaping us. Yoshua Bengio’s…

People in this episode

Host: John Stackhouse

Guests: Yoshua Bengio, Jaxson Khan

Topics covered

  • AI safety
  • trustworthy AI
  • AI sovereignty
  • Canadian AI strategy
  • AI risks
  • AI development

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • AI trust
  • AI risks
  • AI development
  • Canada AI strategy
  • Yoshua Bengio
  • Jaxson Khan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mila, LawZero, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Places: Canada

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