OTTAWA - At the Paris AI Action Summit in February, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders watched as U.S. Vice President JD Vance took the stage to rail against AI regulation.

Vance's speech — delivered with his face projected on a large screen between the intricately-carved pillars lining the stage at the historic Grand Palais — marked the beginning of a global shift in governments' attitudes toward AI governance.

That shift hit Canada a month later, when Mark Carney replaced Trudeau as prime minister and signalled a new approach to artificial intelligence in this country.

Under the Trudeau Liberals, then-industry minister François-Philippe Champagne could boast about the possibility of Canada being the first country to introduce AI regulation legislation.

VANCOUVER - Young customers and families filter in and out of Foglifter, a bustling café in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, ordering croissants and lattes.

Barista Nicholas Schorn says many, especially millennials, are open about their ritual.

"They will say, yeah, 'I'm here for my little treat,' pretty much quoted just exactly like that," Schorn said.

"Or you'll hear variations on, 'It's my one thing, it's my one indulgence,' as though ... people aren't really taking time for themselves in other ways."

TOKYO (AP) — A 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan and caused small tsunami waves but no apparent damage Friday, days after a stronger quake in the same region.

Friday's quake occurred off the east coast of Aomori prefecture, in the north of Honshu, the main Japanese island, at a depth of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) at 11:44 a.m., according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which issued a tsunami advisory that was lifted about two hours later.

Small waves were reported in Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures, but no serious damage or injuries were reported.

The quake followed a 7.5 magnitude earthquake Monday that caused injuries, light damage and a small tsunami on Japan's Pacific coast.

OTTAWA - The federal government is using artificial intelligence to sort through public input on AI policy, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Thursday.

Solomon said an internally developed AI platform is being used to translate and summarize more than 11,000 comments the government received through its public consultation on an update to its national AI strategy. 

The work complies with rules set out by the Treasury Board, and the comments will be made public once the work is finished, Solomon said.

The public consultation ran alongside an expert "task force" that Solomon assigned this fall to guide him on updating the strategy.

HALIFAX - Scientists have found evidence that two unlikely collaborators — killer whales and dolphins — may be helping each other find and feast on salmon off the coast of British Columbia.

Sarah Fortune, an assistant professor in oceanography at Halifax’s Dalhousie University said it would appear the massive fish-eating whales may be working with Pacific white-sided dolphins, which have been spotted eating the salmon chunks the killer whales produce. 

She is a co-author of a paper published Thursday in Scientific Reports that found the two species appear to be working together while they forage. 

Recordings picked up "this audible crunch as the whale bites down, then you see these fragments of fish that are released,” and then dolphins swim in to eat the pieces, Fortune said.