Feds Begin Consultations on Generative AI Code of Conduct

The Canada flag flies atop the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 5, 2023. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

The federal government has started work on a voluntary code of conduct for generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology like ChatGPT, providing guidelines to companies developing AI systems.

“Recent advances in AI technology have reaffirmed the urgency of regulating AI, particularly generative AI systems,” a spokesperson for Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne told The Epoch Times in an email.

“The Government of Canada is discussing the development of a voluntary code of practice on generative AI that would provide guidelines to Canadian companies developing and using AI systems, between now and when formal regulation takes effect.”

According to the spokesperson, the federal government has launched a stakeholder round table consultation to hear from Canada’s Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence, representatives from academia, civil society, Canada’s AI research institutes, and those in the industry.

The federal government will also release a document that outlines the context for the consultation “within the coming days.”

The consultation was confirmed on Aug. 15 after the federal government posted it on its “Consulting with Canadians” website, but made no other announcement on the subject. University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist spotted the consultation, accidentally posted, and mentioned it on social media on Aug. 11.

The spokesperson said the Canadian government had been a “leader” on the issue of generative AIs like ChatGPT both at home and abroad—and cited the tabling of Bill C-27, also known as the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, meant to “modernize the framework for the protection of personal information in the private sector and introduce new rules for the development and deployment of AI.”

The legislation would increase control and transparency when Canadians’ personal information is handled by companies, ensure that Canadians’ information is destroyed when their consent is withdrawn, ensure companies meet the “highest standards of quality” when developing and deploying AI systems, and implement strict fines of up to 5 percent of revenue, or $25 million, for offending companies.

The House of Commons industry committee will begin studying Bill C-27 when Parliament returns from its summer break. But since the bill was introduced back in June 2022—before ChatGPT and other generative AI models had been launched—the bill will need to be revised.

Caucus to Study AI Technology

In early June, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner and Sen. Colin Deacon launched a parliamentary caucus that focuses on issues like AI and blockchain technology. Ms. Rempel Garner said when OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, was launched in December 2022, “a chill went down my spine.”

“We don’t really have rules on how that happens, or who can do that. And when you think about the impacts that has ... on misinformation, on our democratic institutions, on scams, you can imagine if somebody created a doppelganger of you and used it to call your parents or grandparents to ask for money. These are real things,” she said.

The Canadian government’s announcement on the voluntary code of conduct for generative AI comes just five days after the United States Department of Defence established a task force to analyze and integrate generative AI tools across the department.  Created on Aug. 10, Task Force Lima will “assess, synchronize, and employ generative AI capabilities” across the department.

On May 16, CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he appealed to lawmakers to regulate AI. He warned that within 10 years, AI could be more powerful than any “other technologies humanity has had to contend with.”