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Canada's voluntary AI code of conduct is coming — not everyone is enthused (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 2 years ago by cwood@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

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Carole Piovesan (formerly of McCarthy Tétrault, now at INQ Law) describes this as a "step in the process to introducing some more sort of enforceable measures".

In this case the code of conduct has some fairly innocuous things. Managing risk, curating to avoid biases, safeguarding against malicious use. It's your basic industrial safety government boilerplate as applied to AI. Here, read it for yourself:

https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/voluntary-code-conduct-responsible-development-and-management-advanced-generative-ai-systems

Now of course our country's captains of industry have certain reservations. One CEO of a prominent Canadian firm writes that "We don’t need more referees in Canada. We need more builders."

https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1707017494844547161

Another who you will recognize from my prior post (https://awful.systems/post/298283) is noted in the CBC article as concerned about "the ability to put a stifling growth in the industry". I am of course puzzled about this concern. Surely companies building these products are trivially capable of complying with such a basic code of conduct?

For my part I have difficulty seeing exactly how "testing methods and measures to assess and mitigate risk of biased output" and "creating safeguards against malicious use" would stifle industry and reduce building. My lack of foresight in this regard could be why I am a scrub behind a desk instead of a CEO.

Oh, and for bonus Canadian content, the name Desmarais from the photo (next to the Minister of Industry) tweaked my memory. Oh right, those Desmarais. Canada will keep on Canada'ing to the end.

https://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/articles/helene-and-paul-desmarais-change-agents-and-business-titans/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Corporation_of_Canada#Politics

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[–] autotldr 1 points 2 years ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Companies working with AI in Canada are being presented with a new voluntary code of conduct around how advanced generative artificial intelligence is used and developed in this country.

And while there has already been support from the business community, there are also concerns being raised that it could stifle innovation and the ability to compete with companies based outside of Canada.

Hence, the voluntary code would give another method for the federal government to set out rules for companies to make products people can trust before they even use them, or whether they opt to use them at all.

"People always deploy mobile phones and computers and networks, and then we try to apply trust after the fact," Charles Eagan said in an interview with CBC News.

Despite the code being voluntary, lawyer Carole Piovesan said it's part of a growing ecosystem of regulation and legal measures in Canada.

One of his concerns is that different or stricter rules in Canada can make it harder to compete, citing some European tech regulations in other, non-AI sectors that result in companies choosing not to offer services there.

The original article contains 874 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!