[Air-L] New Report: Northern Lights and Silicon Dreams: AI Governance in Canada (2011-2022)

[Fenwick Mckelvey]

Dr. Jonathan Roberge and I are pleased to announce the publication of the
Canadian team's second report for the international Shaping AI
<https://www.shapingai.org/>project on AI Governance in Canada (2011-2022)
based on research coordinated by Dr. Sophie Toupin and myself.



*Read the report here: https://www.amo-oma.ca/en/ai-policy-report/
<https://www.amo-oma.ca/en/ai-policy-report/>*



You can read more in a co-published piece with Joanna Redden in the
Conversation:
https://theconversation.com/the-federal-governments-proposed-ai-legislation-misses-the-mark-on-protecting-canadians-227186



Our key findings:

   1. Canadian AI governance focuses on economic and industrial
   policy. National symbolic investment in AI dampens critical discussion
   about the technology and its risks.
   2. AI governance is uncoordinated and lacks clear mandates for
   consultation and effective mechanisms of feedback, which impedes good
   governance and public participation.
   3. AI policy is marked by notable silences on key issues, including
   Indigenous rights and data sovereignty, the creative and cultural sectors,
   and the environmental impact of AI.
   4. The Government of Canada is a key site of AI development and
   deployment that remains understudied in current legislation.



The chapters cover a range of topics, including:

   - the Canadian government’s algorithmic impact assessment
   - ethics and federal AI procurement
   - public consultations on the use of facial recognition technologies
   - the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s involvement in AI
   research and policy
   - the use of racially biased AI technology in Canada’s immigration system

Highlighting the need to improve consultation and public participation in
AI governance, the report questions the assumptions behind the development
of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and its inclusion in Bill C-27.
AIDA’s passage raises larger concerns about digital policy development and
governance, accountability, and oversight in Canada.



Shaping AI <https://shapingai.org> is part of a multinational and
multidisciplinary social research project that examines the global
trajectories of public discourse on AI in four countries (Germany, UK,
Canada, and France) over a ten-year period, 2012-2021. Funded by the
European Open Research Area, Shaping AI brings together leading research
teams from each of the four countries under scrutiny.


-- 
Be good,
Fenwick