Competition summit hears regulation, keeping talent at home are key to Canada’s standing on artificial intelligence

Regulation and creating space for innovation in Canada were repeated themes at the Competition Bureau’s summit on market dynamics and artificial intelligence Monday. The summit was organized to discuss impacts of AI on competition across markets and international and domestic regulatory approaches. Panelist Jennifer Quaid, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and an expert in corporate accountability, competition and business regulation, posited during the first talk of the day that one aspect still missing in Canada are clear working definitions for identifying applications of AI, sectors, and risk levels to regulate. “That becomes a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. We're talking about how we can use competition law to respond to something that we haven't even got our heads around in terms of agreeing what we're talking about and what are the levels of regulatory response to that,” Quaid said. Quaid stated that part of the reason for the lack of such definitions is the snarling of Bill C-27, the proposed Digital Charter Implementation Act, in clause-by-clause reading that “doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to end.” C-27 would establish the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal. There has been much discussion over whether the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) should continue to be included in the legislation or split off into a separate bill. One area Quaid finds is not often discussed is the relationship between how regulators respond to AI, how it is framed, and “just the ordinary rules of conducting business.” “How do you create an environment – and a consistent environment – that sends the right messages for what is acceptable and not acceptable behaviour? “We care about competition because it produces beneficial outcomes. We care about AI and we want AI to be successful. We want to strike the right balance because we believe it's on balance going to be good,” Quaid said. “One has to nevertheless be explicit about what is and isn't acceptable, and you have to enforce that so it's not good enough to rely on people's best intentions.” Regulatory challenges ‘aren’t new’ In general, Quaid argued that the challenges around determining how to regulate AI “aren’t new,” and offered the country’s regulation of the securities sector as an example. “Regulators are pretty severe – we demand information about how things work. We demand financials, and that is how we learn. Is it perfect? No, of course not, and innovation is constantly faster than the way the regulators can go,” Quaid said. “But I think that's something we need to keep in mind, that understanding how these things work, understanding how the technologies are going to be deployed also has to come from the public, by our regulators, demanding that we understand how it works. It's not true that we are helpless, but we do have to help ourselves.” Quaid also noted a seemingly persistent sense amongst observers that after algorithms are in motion, their creators might disavow their involvement if things go badly by arguing they could not have predicted the direction the AI would go in. “So what? You make those who develop those algorithms with unpredictable results accountable, period.” Quaid noted it sounds harsh, but the people coming up with these developments are also making money and benefiting from it. When it comes to developing algorithms, we need to make those who develop them think carefully, argued Quaid. “We call it due diligence.” “Sometimes we're very, very delicate stepping around this beautiful, little crystal egg of AI. ‘Oh, my goodness, what if you do the slightest thing to annoy those who develop it, we won’t get the full benefits,’” Quaid said. “I just don’t think that’s true.” Keeping Canadian talent at home Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, said during the same panel that for Canada to see the benefits of AI from an economic perspective, “we as a country have to do some reimagining.” “How do we have a whole-of-government approach and how do we look at what’s required of us to actually dominate some areas of the AI revolution?” Bergen observed that over the years, a majority of intellectual property originating in Canada has left the country or gone to large foreign firms. “Where we really fall down is really the commercialization of these ideas, and so doubling down and figuring out how we can actually support them, whether it be things like government procurement or how dollars are accessed, is really the critical way for us to move forward,” said Bergen. An exodus of Canadian expertise from the country is already on Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s agenda. In June, the federal department launched a consultation on AI to determine more specifically how to provide enough computing power in Canada for the use of AI, as well as keeping talent at home. In order to capitalize on the economic development and productivity-boosting potential of AI in a “safe and secure way,” researchers and companies will need “considerable access” to advanced and high-performing computing power, ISED said. It also wants to be able to “safeguard Canadian data and intellectual property while pursuing advanced AI.” Bergen suggested Monday decision makers need to look at how they build capacity around areas of AI policy that will lead to firms being able to be successful. “As we reflect on how we want to try and be leaders in certain areas, I think we’ve got to be smart,” Bergen said. “We can only pick a few areas. I don’t think we can plant seeds everywhere and have the flowers grow.” Bergen said Canada will “have to build new institutions that will capture AI and actually help us generate returns from our companies that are able to go global and sell,” highlighting that there are still world-class researchers working in Canada and “great institutions” that are capable of being cutting edge. - Reporting by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca

Competition summit hears regulation, keeping talent at home are key to Canada’s standing on artificial intelligence

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By Hannah Daley
| September 16, 2024

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