artificial intelligence

By Dan Daniele

Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 seeks to bring “safety and trust” to the forefront of Canada’s evolving digital sphere, according to  the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Francois-Philippe Champagne, who introduced this bill on June 16, 2022. Bill C-27 promises to update and strengthen Canadian privacy law, govern the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (“AI”), and continue implementing the principles of Canada’s Digital Charter.  As social media companies deal with large volumes of personal data and are increasingly relying on AI systems, these companies and their consumers will surely experience the impacts of this bill if it becomes law. In Europe, where privacy laws are stringent, social media companies have already faced significant fines for data misuse.

As the second wave of COVID-19 spreads across Canada, the use of COVID-19 tracing apps is on the rise. For example, the Government of Canada released COVID Alert – an app using Bluetooth technology to help people report positive diagnoses, and control the spread of the virus. The success of the app depends on a high quantity of users, but concerns over privacy and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in analyzing the data may hinder that objective.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science referring to intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans. Social media platforms use artificial intelligence technologies such as natural language processing to understand text data, and image processing for facial recognition.

In some instances, regulation tries to create a “legal” definition of AI. For example, a law requiring disclosure of chat bots defines “bot” as “an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person.” Article 22 of GDPR provides for the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on “automated processing, including profiling” with legal or significant impact. AI laws also refer to driverless vehicles. These legal definitions of AI determine whether the law applies to the particular AI process or system.

Social media depends on digital technology, and the Canadian government has begun a review of Canada’s Copyright Act with a view to keep the copyright framework current in light of digital technology.

Written submissions are now being solicited from all Canadians on Canada’s Copyright Act, as the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (“Committee”) conducts its mandatory five-year review of the statute. The Committee also will be considering testimony from live witnesses representing different sectors of activity, including software and telecommunications, as well as considering the views of people across Canada as it travels to various locations throughout May.

Chatbots are computer applications programmed to mimic human behaviour using machine learning and natural language processing. Chatbots can act autonomously and do not require a human operator. Given this freedom, chatbots do not always act in a manner that is fair and neutral – they can go wild with unintended consequences. For example, a chatbot “e-shopper” was given a budget of $100 in bitcoin and quickly figured out how to purchase illegal drugs on the Darknet. Another chatbot was programmed to mimic teenager behaviour using social media data. By the afternoon of her launch, she was firing off rogue tweets and taken offline by the developer. Chatbots were pulled from a popular Chinese messaging application after making unpatriotic comments. A pair of chatbots were taught how to negotiate by mimicking trading and bartering and created their own strange form of communication when they started trading together. Online dating sites can use chatbots to interact with users looking for love and increase user engagement. Chatbots can go rogue in chat rooms to extract personal data, bank account information, and stoke negative sentiment. Chatbots are increasingly being used by businesses as customer service agents. Even these legitimate and well-meaning corporate chatbots may also go wild.

Human interactions with technology

In the past few years, the use of social media has increased rapidly. A key feature of social media platforms and social media apps is the ability to interact with other people in ways that were not thought possible in previous generations.  With the click of a button, someone from the other side of the world can appear on a screen in front of you.

Technology and social media have not just given rise to platforms that facilitate human-to-human interaction: recently, advancements in technology have led to a rise in a new type of social relationship: human-to-computer interaction.  The interactions we have with technology are not just based on user input.  Technology has learned to respond to people.  It can communicate with us.  It can perform tasks.  It can learn our habits and tailor services to our needs.  It can learn to identify us.  It can assemble information and provide solutions to problems.  This ‘artificial intelligence’ (or AI) has become a key component in our daily social interactions.