AI initiative registry

Every initiative listed in the registry can be consulted here, without an account. Each record shows its progress, its milestones and the history of its decisions. Requests still under triage do not appear: they join the registry once reviewed.

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146 current initiative(s)

AI initiative registry
ID	AI Initiative	Current Status	Description	Sector	Region	AI Bucket	SME
59	Clustering to characterize extreme marine conditions for the benthic region of the Northeastern Pacific continental margin	Pilot	We introduce a method for characterizing extremes that uses machine learning to divide the data into regions with relatively consistent envi...	Ecosystems and Oceans Science	Pacific	Automation and Decision Support	Holdsworth, Amber
58	Phytoplankton image classification model	Pilot	Create a neural network model to classify phytoplankton images collected by in-situ phytoplankton imaging sensors. There are two discrete s...	Ecosystems and Oceans Science	Pacific	Perception and Understanding	Covert, Paul
52	"Chumputer Vision" (see B32) Salmon Scale Aging	Pilot	A model using computer vision to look at images of salmon scale and predict the age of salmon and also monitor its ring growth. CNN and YOL...	Programs Sector	Pacific	Perception and Understanding	Quan, Eric
51	EN/FR Translation Model	Pilot	A large language model that is trained on the Translations Bureau’s and DFO's language-characteristics (i.e. grammar, annotation, syntax, wo...	Programs Sector	Pacific	Interaction and Engagement	Quan, Eric
50	Salmon Data Digitization (See B22, B26)	Pilot	Digitizing non-machine-readable (handwritten) documents and extracts characters into a digital format so that it is accessible, editable, an...	Programs Sector	Pacific	Perception and Understanding	Quan, Eric
49	Salmon Fence Counting	Pilot	A model using computer vision to analyze water stream fence video-footage, to simultanously count the number of and predict the species of s...	Programs Sector	Pacific	Perception and Understanding	Quan, Eric
44	HRMS helpdesk in Power Apps – Power Automate – Sharepoint	Pilot	Use AI to determine the correct templatae response to client questions. We would like to use Protected B data (helpdesk requests already ans...	Human Resources and Corporate Services	National Capital Region	Automation and Decision Support	Gardner, Leigh
42	Classification engineered prompts	Pilot	Our classification group is testing premade prompts to help with job description writing and analysis. ADDED FROM ID 48: We are exploring...	Human Resources and Corporate Services	National Capital Region	Cognitive and Generative AI	Gardner, Leigh
37	OCDS AI Portal	Pilot	The Office of Chief Data Steward (OCDS) currently has in its possession multiple proof-of-concept AI models developed that demonstrates the...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Infrastructure and Enablement	Wang, Yuchen
36	AI-assisted Solution to summarize C&P aerial surveillance videos	Pilot	A pilot project to explore the use of AI/ML for automating the identification of relevant segments in EM video and imagery, such as human ac...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Legresley, Jean-Claude
34	AI-assisted Marine Mammal Annotation Tool	Pilot	The goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of the aerial image annotation process to reduce manual efforts of the marine mammal sc...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Wang, Yuchen
32	CTD Anomaly Detection	Pilot	The goal of this project is to apply machine learning to detect anomalous oceanographic data, highlighting meaningful physical phenomena in...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Croft, Lee
31	Quality control of oceanographic data - Maritimes Region	Pilot	The goal of the project is to assist in the processing and quality control of CTD (oceanographic) data by leveraging machine learning models...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Automation and Decision Support	Croft, Lee
29	AI-Enabled Detection of Watercraft for Aquatic Invasive Species Risk Management	Pilot	This pilot project, in collabration with Aquatic Invasive Species Program, develops an AI-powered system to automatically detect and track...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Spearin, Brendan
28	AI-Enabled Electronic Monitoring (EM) Solutions	Pilot	The pilot project, in collabration with Fisheries Resources Management, explores the integration of AI-enabled electronic monitoring (EM) so...	Strategic Policy	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Rémillard, Vincent
24	Automated Identification of Vessel Fishing Activity	Pilot	Piloting use of vessel AIS data with AI to predict probable fishing activity and provide near real time alerts to officers, aiming to boost...	Programs Sector	National Capital Region	Automation and Decision Support	Bédard, Mathieu
23	Video Summarization for Aerial Surveillance	Pilot	AI pilot under development to automatically detect and flag relevant events (e.g., human/vessel activity) in surveillance video for informat...	Programs Sector	National Capital Region	Perception and Understanding	Bédard, Mathieu
22	AI Model for Administrative Support	Pilot	Pilot with select staff using MS Copilot for briefing material preparation, data analysis, writing, and translation. Exploring broader acces...	Programs Sector	National Capital Region	Cognitive and Generative AI	Bédard, Mathieu
5	ITSD knowledge content improvement	Pilot	The DFO IT Service Desk is leveraging generative AI (usually Copilot) to enhance its knowledge base articles and Assyst FAQs, which is knowl...	Chief Digital Officer	Quebec	Cognitive and Generative AI	Miousse, Gaétan
3	Labels Pilot	Pilot	We are looking into using Labels back end for smart labels as well as a free copilot agent for the departement to use in order to validate a...	Chief Digital Officer	National Capital Region	Automation and Decision Support	Bartoli, Saul
1	M365 Copilot Pilot	Pilot	We are running the Copilot Licensed pilot to see the use of Copilot as an elevated assistant. We are looking into how productive it can help...	Chief Digital Officer	National Capital Region	Cognitive and Generative AI	Tremblay, Julien

59
Clustering to characterize extreme marine conditions for the benthic region of the Northeastern Pacific continental margin
We introduce a method for characterizing extremes that uses machine learning to divide the data into regions with relatively consistent environmental conditions (temperature, oxygen, acidity), and define the extremes based on the historical statistics of variability of each of these fields. unsupervised clustering with k-means

Pilot Ecosystems and Oceans Science Automation and Decision Support
58
Phytoplankton image classification model
Create a neural network model to classify phytoplankton images collected by in-situ phytoplankton imaging sensors. There are two discrete steps to this project: 1) create a library of annotated images for model training; 2) creation and refinement of the CNN model. Convolutional Neural Network, InceptionV3 and ResNet

Pilot Ecosystems and Oceans Science Perception and Understanding
52
"Chumputer Vision" (see B32) Salmon Scale Aging
A model using computer vision to look at images of salmon scale and predict the age of salmon and also monitor its ring growth. CNN and YOLO 9. Currently trained on 1478 images.

Pilot Programs Sector Perception and Understanding
51
EN/FR Translation Model
A large language model that is trained on the Translations Bureau’s and DFO's language-characteristics (i.e. grammar, annotation, syntax, words, scientific term) context. The model’s enables translation to be like those by the Translation Bureau. Training on large database of scientific documents (published by Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat) to understand scientific terminology is currently in progress. MADLAD 400 10B (Initially trained on sample of ~100 translated documents, in progress of additional training with published CSAS documents going back to year 2000)

Pilot Programs Sector Interaction and Engagement
50
Salmon Data Digitization (See B22, B26)
Digitizing non-machine-readable (handwritten) documents and extracts characters into a digital format so that it is accessible, editable, and useable for analysis. Document Intelligence - Custom Classification and Extraction Model Azure OpenAI GPT4o mini Data and Information from ~45,000 pages have been digitized

Pilot Programs Sector Perception and Understanding
49
Salmon Fence Counting
A model using computer vision to analyze water stream fence video-footage, to simultanously count the number of and predict the species of salmon. YOLO 11 Chinook trained on 735 annotated frames from 63 videos Coho trained on 432 annotated frames from 44 videos Sockeye trained on 1149 annotated frames from 36 videos Chum untrained (annotation of 1368 frames from 43 videos in progress) Pink Humpback

Pilot Programs Sector Perception and Understanding
44
HRMS helpdesk in Power Apps – Power Automate – Sharepoint
Use AI to determine the correct templatae response to client questions. We would like to use Protected B data (helpdesk requests already answered) as training data.

Pilot Human Resources and Corporate Services Automation and Decision Support
42
Classification engineered prompts
Our classification group is testing premade prompts to help with job description writing and analysis. ADDED FROM ID 48: We are exploring using AI to help with job description writing and editing tasks, and initial tests using copilot have been helpful. It would be nice to have a tool that could write and edit job descriptions, help analyse current job descriptions and help with SoMCs, etc… This wouldn’t need protected data for training, but we would need to upload classification documents needed for this type of work.

Pilot Human Resources and Corporate Services Cognitive and Generative AI
37
OCDS AI Portal
The Office of Chief Data Steward (OCDS) currently has in its possession multiple proof-of-concept AI models developed that demonstrates the potential of AI in fisheries and oceans management. Due to a lack of deployment processes, the models currently sits idle in our repository. This initiative aims to develop a portal where the models can be deployed in a proof-of-concept fashion to enhancement DFO's understanding of AI and drive the cultural change needed to promote the adoption of AI at DFO. The portal has been completed and is accessible at: https://ocds-ai-portal.canadacentral.cloudapp.azure.com/ The portal was shared in the DFO kiosk at the 2025 GC data conference for engagement. It has so far welcomed 360 users, received over 2K views an

Pilot Strategic Policy Infrastructure and Enablement
36
AI-assisted Solution to summarize C&P aerial surveillance videos
A pilot project to explore the use of AI/ML for automating the identification of relevant segments in EM video and imagery, such as human activity or vessel registration numbers (VRNs). This initiative aims to reduce manual review time and enhance the efficiency of information management in support of fisheries oversight.

Pilot Strategic Policy Perception and Understanding
34
AI-assisted Marine Mammal Annotation Tool
The goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of the aerial image annotation process to reduce manual efforts of the marine mammal science team and reduce time-to-insight for marine mammal survey flights. This project is currently in progress. Business requirements have been finalized and development has commenced Client: Ecosystems and Oceans Science - Ecosystems Science Directorate

Pilot Strategic Policy Perception and Understanding
32
CTD Anomaly Detection
The goal of this project is to apply machine learning to detect anomalous oceanographic data, highlighting meaningful physical phenomena in the state of the ocean for closer investigation by scientists. A proof of conept model has been developed to demonstrate feasibility. Further validation is required with the client to verify alignment with the needs of scientists. Client: Pacific Region - Ocean Sciences Division

Pilot Strategic Policy Perception and Understanding
31
Quality control of oceanographic data - Maritimes Region
The goal of the project is to assist in the processing and quality control of CTD (oceanographic) data by leveraging machine learning models to predict quality flags for the CTD data products generated by Maritimes region, enabling faster data processing by reducing manual burden. Initial explorations have been conducted to investigate transferability of existing quality control models from Pacific region. Based on investigation results, new models will be trained specific to Maritimes region. Client: Maritimes Region - Ocean Data

Pilot Strategic Policy Automation and Decision Support
29
AI-Enabled Detection of Watercraft for Aquatic Invasive Species Risk Management
This pilot project, in collabration with Aquatic Invasive Species Program, develops an AI-powered system to automatically detect and track watercraft at key entry points to prevent the spread of Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS). By enabling early identification of vessels that may carry invasive organisms, the system supports faster inspections and intervention to protect aquatic ecosystems. Initial exploration using sample data is underway, with the project pending ADM approval for installing cameras and data collection. Client: Aquatic Invasive Species Program

Pilot Strategic Policy Perception and Understanding
28
AI-Enabled Electronic Monitoring (EM) Solutions
The pilot project, in collabration with Fisheries Resources Management, explores the integration of AI-enabled electronic monitoring (EM) solutions to automate the detection and classification of fishing activities using video and sensor data from vessels. This initiative aims to enhance compliance monitoring, reduce manual review time, and support evidence-based fisheries management. Client: Fisheries Resources Management

Pilot Strategic Policy Perception and Understanding
24
Automated Identification of Vessel Fishing Activity
Piloting use of vessel AIS data with AI to predict probable fishing activity and provide near real time alerts to officers, aiming to boost compliance coverage and response. Action plan for this initiative: 1. Governance: Supervised under compliance analytics team, reporting to C & P management. 2. Guardrails: Apply strict controls (no personal data), validate accuracy in live pilots, monitoring for unintended use.

Pilot Programs Sector Automation and Decision Support
23
Video Summarization for Aerial Surveillance
AI pilot under development to automatically detect and flag relevant events (e.g., human/vessel activity) in surveillance video for information management. Action plan for this initiative: 1. Governance: Oversight by a multidisciplinary group, routine updates and risk assessments to DM. 2. Guardrails: Pilot with departmental data only, audit outputs for accuracy and bias. 3. Work processes: Deliver targette

Pilot Programs Sector Perception and Understanding
22
AI Model for Administrative Support
Pilot with select staff using MS Copilot for briefing material preparation, data analysis, writing, and translation. Exploring broader access for process automation. Action plan for this initiative: 1. Governance: Assign project lead, document user access. Regular check-ins with IT and management. 2. Guardrails: Restrict to trained users, apply GC data/privacy standards, conduct ethical reviews and audits. 3. Work pr

Pilot Programs Sector Cognitive and Generative AI
5
ITSD knowledge content improvement
The DFO IT Service Desk is leveraging generative AI (usually Copilot) to enhance its knowledge base articles and Assyst FAQs, which is knowledge intended for clients. This includes creating new knowledge articles, validating and improving existing content, translating materials, and tailoring messaging to different audiences.

Pilot Chief Digital Officer Cognitive and Generative AI
3
Labels Pilot
We are looking into using Labels back end for smart labels as well as a free copilot agent for the departement to use in order to validate a user's classification. if we could fund the "query" fund for the user community we could point the Free agent to consume DFO specific Information on Information Classification. as for the other option we will need to ensure we have items to feed the machine learning.

Pilot Chief Digital Officer Automation and Decision Support
1
M365 Copilot Pilot
We are running the Copilot Licensed pilot to see the use of Copilot as an elevated assistant. We are looking into how productive it can help people perform their work, reduce administratrive tasking We have 300 licenses, but we also have all DFO users available for a smaller version of Copilot that could be leveraged.

Pilot Chief Digital Officer Cognitive and Generative AI