The IPL newsletter: Volume 23, Issue 481

OECD Economic Surveys: Canada

OECD
This OECD Economic Survey includes key policy insights on inflation, fiscal buffers, strengthening the business environment, supporting the vulnerable and raising labour force participation. The second half of the report focuses on Canada's transition to net zero emissions. This includes sections focused on improving Canada's carbon pricing system, accelerating decarbonisation of electricity, reducing emissions from oil and gas production, policies to reduce road transport emissions, improving the energy performance of Canada's buildings, and policies to reduce the cost of climate change.

Introducing AI at Scale, a report by Scale AI. 

ScaleAI
In this research report, Scale AI provides an in-depth analysis of the state of AI in Canada and in peer countries to identify potential scenarios for the evolution of the Canadian AI sector.

Patenting with the stars: Where are technology leaders leading the labor market?

David Autor, Anna Salomons, and Bryan Seegmillerhis, Brookings
This paper considers the potential labor market consequences of the innovative activity of the largest U.S. firms (‘superstars’) over eight decades. Superstars generate a large share of innovations, and their innovations are technologically distinct and differentially impactful relative to those of other firms. Leveraging a novel patent-level measure of innovations’ labor-augmenting and labor-automating potential, the report shows that superstar innovations are more likely to augment labor compared to innovations pioneered by other firms, especially in recent decades. Workers of different skill types do not benefit equally, however: top firms’ differential labor augmentation is largely limited to high-paid occupations. This suggests modern-day superstar firms’ innovations contribute to the diverging labor market fortunes of high- and low-skilled workers.

Plan to forge a better Britain through science and technology unveiled

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, The Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP, and The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
The Prime Minister and Technology Secretary recently launched the UK government’s plan to "cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030, alongside a raft of new measures backed by over £370 million to boost investment in innovation, bring the world’s best talent to the UK, and seize the potential of ground-breaking new technologies like AI."

The new Science and Technology Framework from the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology "will challenge every part of government to better put the UK at the forefront of global science and technology this decade through 10 key actions – creating a coordinated cross-government approach." The announcement summarized these 10 key actions as follows:

• identifying, pursuing and achieving strategic advantage in the technologies that are most critical to achieving UK objectives

• showcasing the UK’s S&T strengths and ambitions at home and abroad to attract talent, investment and boost our global influence

• boosting private and public investment in research and development for economic growth and better productivity

• building on the UK’s already enviable talent and skills base

• financing innovative science and technology start-ups and companies

• capitalising on the UK government’s buying power to boost innovation and growth through public sector procurement

• shaping the global science and tech landscape through strategic international engagement, diplomacy and partnerships

• ensuring researchers have access to the best physical and digital infrastructure for R&D that attracts talent, investment and discoveries

• leveraging post-Brexit freedoms to create world-leading pro-innovation regulation and influence global technical standards

• creating a pro-innovation culture throughout the UK’s public sector to improve the way our public services run

The plan will be a "cross-government endeavour led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to bring together responsibility for the UK’s world class research and innovation system with the 5 technologies of tomorrow – quantum, AI, engineering biology, semiconductors, future telecoms plus life sciences and green technologies, into one single department for the first time."

The plan summarizes an initial package of projects to drive forward the actions of the Science and Technology Framework as follows:

• £250 million investment in 3 truly transformational technologies to build on the UK’s global leadership in AI, quantum technologies and engineering biology, so they can help a range of industries tackle the biggest global challenges like climate change and health care. This forms part of our commitment to the 5 technologies within the science and technology framework, which also includes semiconductors and future telecoms

• publication of Sir Paul Nurse’s Independent Review of the Research, Development and Innovation Organisational Landscape with recommendations to make the most of the UK’s research organisations, ensuring they are effective, sustainable and responsive to global challenges

• testing different models of funding science, to support a range of innovative institutional models, such as Focused Research Organisations (known as FROs), working with industry and philanthropic partners to open up new funding for UK research. For example, this could include working with a range of partners to increase investment in the world leading UK Biobank, to support the continued revolution in genetic science

• up to £50 million to spur co-investment in science from the private sector and philanthropists to drive the discoveries of the future, subject to business cases. The government is already talking to Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, about additional support of up to $20 million as part of this work

• £117 million of existing funding to create hundreds of new PhDs for AI researchers and £8 million to find the next generation of AI leaders around the world to do their research in the UK

• a £50 million uplift to World Class Labs funding to help research institutes and universities to improve facilities so UK researchers have access to the best labs and equipment they need to keep producing world-class science, opening up entirely new avenues for economic growth and job creation

• a £10 million uplift to the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund, totalling £50 million, to boost the UK’s next tech and science start-ups who could be the next Apple, Google or Tesla

• plans to set up an Exascale supercomputer facility – the most powerful compute capability which could solve problems as complex as nuclear fusion – as well as a programme to provide dedicated compute capacity for important AI research, as part of the response to the Future of Compute Review

• £9 million in government funding to support the establishment of a quantum computing research centre by PsiQuantum in Daresbury in the North-West