Vancouver Mayor Says AI Not Being Used to ‘Make City Decisions’ After Remarks Draw Scrutiny

Vancouver’s mayor is assuring residents he doesn’t use artificial intelligence for city business after earlier remarks that AI agents handle “a lot of my work” sparked public concern.

Mayor Ken Sim issued a statement to clarify comments from a May 12 press conference where federal AI Minister Evan Solomon announced plans for two new AI data centres in Vancouver.

Sim emphasized the swift development of the technology while talking to reporters, describing it as “doubling every five months.”

“I don’t think people understand how significant AI is going to be in all our lives,” Sim said. “I have 11 AI agents running right now doing all my—like a lot of my work in the background, and it’s going to be 64 times better. And five months after that it’s going to be 128 times better.”

His comments triggered negative comments on social media platforms like X as constituents interpreted his remarks to mean he was using AI to conduct municipal business.

Mayoral challenger Kareem Allam called on Sim to explain which 11 AI agents he is using.

“He must disclose whether government data and the personal information of Vancouver residents are being aggregated in data farms in the United States and China,” Allam said in a May 13 X post. “He must disclose if federal and provincial documents shared with the Office of the Mayor have been tasked to these AI agents. This has the potential to be the largest offshore leak of government data in Canadian history.”

Sim issued a statement on May 13 to address what he described as “misinformation and speculation” about his AI comments.

Sim said the AI agents were never used on municipal property or to “make city decisions.”

“All AI agents or tools I have experimented with were used strictly in a personal capacity,” the mayor said. “They were never used on City of Vancouver hardware, never connected to city networks, never used for city business, and never provided access to any city information or data.”

He said the AI tools he was referring to were in use on his personal computer used solely for scanning news, tracking global and financial events, following “thought leaders,” exercise tracking, and dietary planning.

The mayor said he was concerned the online criticism over the past few days “could discourage investment in Vancouver’s growing technology sector.”

“Vancouver is home to a vibrant innovation economy, and our local companies are helping lead the world in AI and data centre development,” he said. “We should be supporting that growth, not undermining it.”

AI Data Centres

Solomon was in Vancouver on May 12 to announce plans for a large-scale AI data centre project in the city that Ottawa has said will boost Canada’s sovereign computing and artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

The project in partnership with Telus will involve three facilities in B.C.—two new centres  in Vancouver and the expansion of one in Kamloops—which the telecommunications company says will deliver “one of the world’s most powerful and sustainable AI infrastructure clusters.”

The centres will be part of a federal initiative announced last year to identify and boost large-scale sovereign data centres.

Telus told reporters it plans to expand its existing Kamloops data centre and develop two new Vancouver facilities: one in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood and one in the city’s downtown core. The Kamloops expansion and the Mount Pleasant facility are set to open later this year, and the downtown facility is scheduled to open in 2029.

Ottawa has said the AI project will support domestic innovation involving both academia and industry.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.