Bernard Landry was betting on an inventive, intelligent, creative, innovative… and sovereign Quebec. He has always encouraged and encouraged the development of the Quebec imagination, which he wanted to push towards the new human frontiers that artificial intelligence and the universe of the metaverse are in the process of establishing. Yes, from 1982, at the launch of his “technological shift”, then as Minister of Finance, Economy, Science and Technology, from 1996 to 2001, he had seen so far. As a humanist, the former Prime Minister had grasped, from early youth, that human beings were far from having reached their potential for intelligent development.
His vision of the future for Quebec relied on technological progress as a permanent basis for its economic, social and cultural development. However, this progress could only be achieved by focusing on research and development, on education and on Quebec inventiveness.
With these assets in hand, it was up to the Quebec state, the only fair place for the distribution of wealth, to support private enterprise in the commercialization of its intellectual creations. The video game industry in Quebec, of which Bernard Landry encouraged the first steps, in 1996, allowed a fantastic development of artificial intelligence, whose metaverse is an incredible effect.
On November 19, the Circle of Friends of Bernard Landry will take advantage of the fourth edition of its Bernard-Landry Day to take stock of the situation in this area. Quebec occupies a leading position in this universe. But just like for Bernard Landry at the time, he will have to create or recreate a national alliance to really succeed in his bet.
Our world has changed a lot in the last ten to twenty years. The ordinary citizen knows this, he who must fight to create a comfortable future for himself and his family. Well aware of this, many Quebec researchers who work in a multitude of fields are looking for solutions to the world of work so that it enriches individuals, while ceasing to massacre the planet.
Professors and teachers, too, are finding that the rise of information technology has changed the very nature of their teaching. Pupils and students, open to universal information and reliable — but also unreliable — sources are at the heart of the changes underway. The list of “whistleblowers” in this area continues to grow. Those who seem to be the least aware of this profound change are politicians and business owners! Not all of them, of course, but still too many of them.
As early as 1976, then young Minister of State for Economic Development in an openly sovereigntist government, Bernard Landry framed the landscape in a way that those who looked at the finger instead of admiring the moon found simplistic: before distributing the wealth, he must create it! During his first appearance before a more than hostile Council of Employers, he reproached these active capitalists for their reluctance and their conservatism. His philosophy, based on the interventionism of the State, guardian of the whole people, was born.
He first turned to SMEs, because their leaders had the courage to dare. Then, little by little, some big companies got into it too. By force of circumstance, with increasing multilateralism, many promising sectors have been born here: from biotechnology to aeronautics, from the exploitation of biomass to fine petrochemicals, from IT to robotics or home automation. . Returning to power in 1994, Bernard Landry went higher and further still. He, the man of culture, had very quickly understood that the birth of the industrial sector of video games was going to revolutionize knowledge and lead to Artificial Intelligence.
Today, while Quebec’s inventiveness is still not lacking, which bosses really understand what artificial intelligence represents as an advance, both for the human being and for the producer of wealth? Fewer repetitive tasks, fewer work accidents, better wages, real work-family balance, etc. As for the universe of the metaverse which was born from it, and in which young Quebec shoots are successful and competitive, it is already in the process of imposing itself.
AI, because of its positive impact on productivity, is also this tool that would make it possible to deal with the shortage of manpower, without inconsiderately opening the floodgates of multicultural immigration in the federal way. And as with any technological advance, it must absolutely, from its origins, be framed ethically in order to avoid any regrettable skids.
But where are these Quebec entrepreneurs capable of meeting these challenges? Who will be this minister who will have, for example, the audacity to say that our health system will be one of the best in the world, with respect for patients and caregivers, with the introduction of artificial intelligence in the ‘work organization ? What will be this trade union center that will have the courage to tell its members that their own well-being will be expanded in the areas of social, cultural, environmental and economic development with AI? Spirit of Bernard Landry, are you there?