Post Tagged with: "bill c-27"

Data Center by Bob Mical https://flic.kr/p/i3NECz CC BY-NC 2.0

AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions

The government announced plans over the weekend to spend billions of dollars to support artificial intelligence. Billed as “securing Canada’s AI Advantage”, the plan includes promises to spend $2 billion on an AI Compute Access Fund and a Canadian AI Sovereign Compute Strategy that is focused on developing domestic computing infrastructure. In addition, there is $200 million for AI startups, $100 million for AI adoption, $50 million for skills training (particularly those in the creative sector), $50 million for an AI Safety Institute, and $5.1 million to support the Office of the AI and Data Commissioner, which would be created by Bill C-27. While the plan received unsurprising applause from AI institutes that have been lobbying for the money, I have my doubts. There is unquestionably a need to address AI policy, but this approach appears to paper over hard questions about AI governance and regulation. The money may be useful – though given the massive private sector investment in the space right now a better case for public money is needed – but tossing millions at each issue is not the equivalent of grappling with AI safety, copyright or regulatory challenges.

Canada’s Privacy Failure: Federal Court Dismisses Privacy Commissioner’s Complaint Against Facebook Over Cambridge Analytica

The Federal Court of Canada last week dismissed the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s complaint against Facebook stemming from alleged privacy violations involving Cambridge Analytica. The Privacy Commissioner ruled against Facebook in 2019, but Facebook disagreed with the findings and took the matter to court. Last week, a court sided with the social media giant, concluding that the Privacy Commissioner did not provide sufficient evidence that Facebook failed to obtain meaningful consent when sharing information with third-party applications and rejecting a claim that Facebook did not adequately safeguard user information. The Cambridge Analytica case sparked investigations and complaints worldwide, leading to a $5 billion penalty in the U.S., significant settlements of private lawsuits, fines in the UK, and extensive new rules in the European Union. Yet in Canada, the case against the company has been dismissed, raising troubling questions about how it was handled and the adequacy of Canadian privacy law.

Identity Theft Hearings at the Justice Committee

I was scheduled to appear before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Wednesday to discuss Bill C-27, the much-needed identity theft bill. The witness list was packed – the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the RCMP, Canadian Police Chiefs, CIPPIC, and ITAC were also on […]