Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said the council would help his government better manage the risks and seize the opportunities of AI. (EPA Images pic)

MONTREAL: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday launched a national council on artificial intelligence, an effort to shape responsible policy on a technology some fear poses an existential threat to humanity.

Carney's office said the council will "provide independent, practical advice on Canada's AI transformation."

The council's members will include Yoshua Bengio, the Montreal-based computer scientist considered one of the founders of AI.

In an interview with AFP last month, Bengio warned that "we're losing control" of AI and said the global community needed to impose guardrails on the technology, similar to nuclear non-proliferation.