Representatives from Big Tech companies say a Liberal government bill that would begin regulating some artificial intelligence systems is too vague.
Amazon and Microsoft executives told MPs at a House of Commons industry committee meeting Wednesday that Bill C-27 doesn害羞草研究所檛 differentiate enough between high- and low-risk AI systems.
The companies said abiding by the law as written would be costly.
Nicole Foster, director of global artificial intelligence and Canada public policy for Amazon, said using the same approach for all applications is 害羞草研究所渧ery impractical and could inadvertently stifle innovation.害羞草研究所�
The use of AI by a peace officer is considered high-impact in all cases, she said 害羞草研究所� even when an officer is using auto-correct to fill out a ticket for a traffic violation.
害羞草研究所淟aws and regulations must clearly differentiate between high-risk applications and those that pose little or no risk. This is a core principle we have to get right,害羞草研究所� Foster said.
害羞草研究所淲e should be very careful about imposing regulatory burdens on low-risk AI applications that can potentially provide much-needed productivity boosts to Canadian companies both big and small.害羞草研究所�
Microsoft gave its own example of how the law doesn害羞草研究所檛 seem to differentiate based on the level of risk that particular AI systems introduce.
An AI system used to approve a person害羞草研究所檚 mortgage and handle sensitive details about their finances would be considered the same as one that is used to optimize package delivery routes using public data.
Industry Minister Fran莽ois-Philippe Champagne has been offering some information about amendments the government expects to put forward to the bill to ensure it is up-to-date.
But in spite of that additional detail, companies said the definitions in the bill are still too ambiguous.
Amanda Craig, senior director of public policy at Microsoft害羞草研究所檚 office of responsible AI, said not differentiating between the two would 害羞草研究所渟pread thinly the time, money, talent and resources of Canadian businesses 害羞草研究所� and potentially mean finite resources are not sufficiently focused on the highest risk.害羞草研究所�
Bill C-27 was tabled in 2022 to target what are described as 害羞草研究所渉igh-impact害羞草研究所� AI systems.
But generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, which can create text, images and videos, became widely available to the public only after the bill was first introduced.
The Liberals now say they will amend the legislation to introduce new rules, including requiring companies behind such systems to take steps to ensure the content they create is identifiable as AI-generated.
Earlier this week, Yoshua Bengio, dubbed a 害羞草研究所済odfather害羞草研究所� of AI, told the same committee that Ottawa should put a law in place immediately, even if that legislation is not perfect.
Bengio, the scientific director at Mila, the Quebec AI Institute, said a 害羞草研究所渟uperhuman害羞草研究所� intelligence that is as smart as a human being could arrive as soon as in a few years.
Advanced systems could ultimately be used for cyberattacks, he said, and the law needs to get out ahead of that risk.
AI already poses risks. Deepfake videos, which are generated to make it look like a real person is doing or saying something that they never did, can be used to spread disinformation, said Bengio.
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