Will AI make or break Canada? Innovators, researchers demand more guardrails
As the Carney government promotes artificial intelligence as part of its bid to boost the Canadian economy, some inventors who use the technology and experts who study its effects are calling on Ottawa to add more guardrails — something the federal government is actively investigating.
“The guardrails we have now are being imposed by the big tech companies themselves, and what we’re seeing is not enough,” said Valerie Pisano, CEO of Montreal’s AI institute Mila.
In an interview with CBC Home Broadcast on Saturday morning, Pisano said his goal was to “find some security in a world where — in effect, we let companies do what they wanted — without hindering innovation.”
“We know how to do it,” Pisano said. “We’ve done it in every other impactful, innovative, transformative industry. We’ve done it with aviation, we’ve done it with pharma, we’ve done it with nuclear.”
Pisano said she keeps a close eye on the risks posed by rapidly evolving AI, including how children interact with technology, the environmental impact of AI data centers and its potential to displace young workers.
“I’m noticing an increasing number of humans who are in close relationships with AI bots,” Pisano said. “What bothers me is that this is the first time… this is completely new.”
In this case, Pisano said AI can be a force for good where a young person who is struggling socially can use interactions with an AI chatbot to strengthen their social skills. But they will need other support around them.
“I can also go completely to the other end of the spectrum and what I’m seeing is horrifying. It’s being completely disconnected from human contact,” Pisano said.
AI Minister Evan Solomon explained that, among other things, the federal government is closely examining this concern and exploring how to best address it Home,
Researchers are increasingly turning to AI to help address loneliness and social isolation. But the discovery of this technology also raises questions about its social impact on people.
“I’m totally aware of the danger aspect of kids using this,” Solomon told host Katherine Cullen. “But we just have to figure out how to use this tool properly.”
“I don’t want to be like ‘it’s all hype, it’s all confetti, it’s going to be great’ or ‘this is disastrous’ – we have to be practical,” Solomon said. “We have to make a plan and get it right because we have a lot of control here.”
The plan will come from different departments of the federal government, Solomon said.
He explained that his office is responsible for data privacy, and that he would introduce legislation on the issue before the end of the year.
Solomon said Heritage Minister Stéphane Guilbault handles online harm and Justice Minister Sean Fraser focuses on changes to the Criminal Code.
The Liberal government has also given its new AI strategy task force until the end of the month to consult its network and then present ideas in November. Solomon said he hopes to have a refreshed national AI strategy ready by the end of this year.
The group has been asked to look at various aspects of AI including research, adoption, commercialization, investment, infrastructure, skills and safety and security. The government is also holding a public consultation on its AI strategy.
Critics of the task force said Canadian Press this week This is highly dependent on the industry and technical sector perspective and is only indicated Three out of more than two dozen members Said to work on secure AI systems and public trust.
Inventor demands safety measures
But Center Hospitalier de l’Université de MontrealFrédéric Leblond says the device he co-invented — a handheld tool called Sentry that combines lasers with AI to detect whether tissue is cancerous or healthy in real time — is being used in five surgeries per week.
“It can be used to make sure there is no remaining tumor after surgery,” LeBlond said. “For example, it could avoid a second surgery, and potentially in some cases, cure (a patient) of going through surgery.”
Leblond said Sentry sends complex signals about the tissue it analyzes and AI is used to make sure it isn’t making mistakes. He said AI “should and will” assist in decision making but will not ultimately take control of the decisions that are made.
“There needs to be some guardrails in there,” LeBlond said. “You have to be an expert to fix it.”
AI has the potential to be transformative in Canadian health care, Leblond said, but guidelines need to be developed to regulate the technology to guard against issues such as AI bias — for example, an algorithm trained only with data from young men.
“There are a lot of examples like this and I think it needs to be integrated into the rules,” he said.
AI and environmental risks
For Canada to grow its AI industry, it will need a lot of computing power – and that’s where data centers come in handy.
Late last year, the federal government launched Canadian Sovereign AI Compute StrategyWhich said up to $700 million would be invested to “leverage the investment to develop Canadian AI champions” in new or expanded data centres.
Hamish van der Veen, assistant professor of sustainable business management of natural resources at the University of British Columbia, said data centers have huge power needs and he questions how valuable they are.
“It’s good if some data centers are relying on clean energy, but that doesn’t stop centers operating on dirtier, more carbon-dense forms of energy from opening up and potentially outperforming those operating with cleaner energy sources,” he said.
Earlier this year, the International Energy Agency Estimated electricity demand from data centers around the world More than double by 2030 to about 945 terawatt-hours – more than Japan’s entire electricity consumption.
If Canada decides data centers have a role in its economic future, “they need to be embedded within a stringent regulatory framework that follows the precautionary principle and requires zero-net emissions and no new demands on the energy grid,” van der Veen said.
Angela Adam, senior vice president of eStruxture, Canada’s largest data center provider, told Home Data centers are “the very base layer” for innovators to build AI products.
He also said that data centers located in Canada can safely store Canadians’ data, as they are bound by Canadian laws. that angle is important Carney’s plan Creating a “sovereign cloud” that gives users more control over where their data goes.
Generators It takes a huge amount of energy to power AI. CBC’s Rebecca Zandbergen heads to the Nepean-based data centre, where servers run faster to power the technology. He spoke to ThinkOne’s founder to learn what it takes to cool all those servers and about responsible AI and power grids.
“When you own your data, you own your destiny,” Adam said. “Data centers and data, they’re a national security issue right now, and for a good reason.”
Asked about environmental concerns, Adam said his company cares about providing clean power itself and that eStruct has “always been a good steward of sustainability, but we need increasing power. That’s a fact.”
“The need for electricity is not going to go down,” Adam said. “How we collaborate with governments, with power producers, with regulators, that’s a different story. We need to come together and figure out how we operate these workloads in the most sustainable way.”
Asked whether Canada would place restrictions on the energy used by data centres, Solomon said that is primarily a provincial responsibility. But he said if a data center is connected to Canada’s grid, it is obliged to comply clean electricity regulation,
Solomon also said Canada is considering proposals for what a sovereign cloud or sovereign data center might look like, “and obviously we want to comply with our clean energy rules. Those things are factors we’re considering.”
