Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
MONTREAL — Competing at the cutting edge of the world's most disruptive technology depends, it turns out, on good office space.
Gov. Spencer Cox led a delegation of Utah business leaders and policymakers to one of the premier artificial intelligence research labs in the world on Tuesday to find out why.
The Mila Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute claims to have the largest concentration of AI machine learning academics globally, with 150 professors in partnered universities teaming up with over 140 companies exploring AI applications.
Located just north of Montreal's Mount Royal, between the bustling markets of Little Italy, Mila boasts a catalog of nearly 2,600 scientific articles on AI since 2018, 734 current research projects and more than 40 successful start-ups over the last three years pioneering AI use in medical research, power grid resilience and product design.
The secret they shared with Utah? Mastering AI's borderless potential requires bringing research and commercialization into close proximity — the tighter the better.
"We're very impressed with what you've accomplished, what you've been able to do, bringing experts together," Cox told Mila executives on Wednesday. "This is a model for some of the innovation that we want to see happening."
Utah's future AI hub
Utah's own version of Mila is already in the works.
During the state's 2025 legislative session, lawmakers approved $36.5 million in 2025, and recommended $63.5 million in 2026, for the construction of "Convergence Hall," a new state-owned complex at The Point development in Draper, where the old state prison once stood.
Lawmakers envision a state-funded hub where investors, students, professors and government agencies will be housed together to create the largest "innovation campus" in the western United States, featuring access to state resources, a world class library, conference space and over 200 dorms.
The idea rests on Utah's institutions of higher education — which will each have a dedicated space in the building — targeting their research and student projects around critical problems in local industry, particularly those being faced by the 200+ startups that will be invited to locate their operations on site.
If successful, proponents say, The Point will spur private sector investment in the surrounding area as businesses take advantage of the collection of expertise on emerging technologies in AI, energy and life sciences.
The legislator behind much of Utah's approach to AI governance, state Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, said Convergence Hall will be more decentralized than the Canadian program, with more business buy-in and less public funding.
"Hopefully this can kind of be the nucleus of efforts going on all over the state," Cullimore told the Deseret News at Mila. "It can be the epicenter of what's happening."
Why did Utah's trade mission go to Mila?
Despite a packed schedule — featuring meetings with provincial officials, tours at nuclear reactor sites and presentations with top Canadian investors — Cox said he made the Mila visit a priority of his trade mission because of how well positioned Utah businesses are to partner with Mila and replicate the institute's approach in the Beehive State.
Cox's delegation, made up of a group of around 30 cabinet members, state lawmakers, business leaders and university administrators, spent the week meeting with government agencies and industry experts in Quebec and Ontario to signal Utah's desire to forge additional economic ties in the areas of critical minerals and artificial intelligence.
On Tuesday, Cox met with the Quebec minister of economy, innovation and energy to discuss collaboration around energy and AI. Both Quebec and Utah have plans to double their energy production as demands on the grid grow with the development of AI hubs and data centers.
Quebec minister Christine Fréchette and Ryan Starks, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity, signed a letter of intent to establish a framework for closer collaboration in economic development, including AI.
It was "hugely" important for Utah's entire delegation to visit Mila to understand best practices when it comes to regulating AI and integrating it into businesses, according to Jonathan Freedman, the CEO of World Trade Center Utah, which helped to organize the trade mission.
"The Mila Institute has the most cutting edge innovation and technological minds in the world when it comes to artificial intelligence," Freedman said.
Freedman believes lasting connections will emerge from the trade mission between Utah companies and Mila, especially where higher education intersects with policy and industry.
