12:23 p.m.
Hello all. Our AI paper is long but there is a recommendation section at
the end which I have reproduced below. Please take a look at what has
ended up there and let me know if this resonates with you or are there
things that need changing.
1.
/Do you have specific recommendations for lawmakers, policymakers,
or anyone else in a position of power (e.g., school boards,
employers, law enforcement, journalists) to implement when it comes
to any of the things you discussed above? If so, explain them here./
*
*Engage in multistakeholder collaboration to manage risks
internationally**: *Canada should take a leadership role in
advocating for multistakeholder governance and collaboration at the
international level in the development and use of this
transformative technology. What emerges must remain consistent with
agreed upon values. Government, private sector, civil society and
collaborative technical communities should agree on collectively
managing the risks and setting the rules and standards around AI.
*
*Reduce foreign dependency by focussing on Canadian innovation and
content: * The world of AI will increasingly feed upon itself. We
can't stop this but at least we could try to mitigate this by having
some models created in Canada. We would recommend an approach that
advocates for the leveraging of Canada's own considerable expertise
in AI with the need for digital sovereignty, attention to accuracy,
lower barriers to access, and the use of open source models to
maximize transparency. It could make access to AI models not
controlled by foreign bodies available to more people. Canada has
the resources to do this, but has not yet started work in this area.
This is all the more important as the growing call for more
regulation and rules around AI are well meaning but directed to
megacorporations based elsewhere over whom our power is extremely
limited.
*
*Support community-based digital infrastructure models: *In the face
of AI domination by foreign behemoths, Canada should encourage the
developmentof decentralized, localized AI models and infrastructures
that can be better managed and trained from trustworthy sources.
*
A*ctively support open access and open source projects: *Canada
should welcome the efforts of various actors in providing open
access and open source AI models, and indeed it should contribute to
this pool of knowledge, Just as the internet runs best (and maybe
could only run) on open source software such as Linux, AI needs more
openness and transparency as a matter of both public trust and
regulation enforceability.
*
*Support national education programs:***Invest in public AI literacy
and increased awareness. To strengthen informed participation in
democratic oversight and public ability to use AI tools in a safe
and effective manner, support national education programs and new
spaces for discussion of its long-term effects.
*
*Assess environmental impacts: *Require environmental impact
disclosures for large-scale AI infrastructure.
*
*Reimage intellectual property: *Support discussions, national and
international, to reestablish a mechanism for copyright recognition
in the world of large language models.
*
*Seek out and support community focussed AI users/groups: *As AI
evolves, there are people and groups (early adopters) who will
embrace AI’s nature on its own terms and use it imaginatively to
beneficially evolve themselves and their relationships with those
around them. All new communication technologies have passed through
such an early adaptor phase when communal benefits were emphasized.
This is where public broadcasting originated and community networks
focused on social action which emerged well before corporations saw
that demand for internet access was an economic opportunity.
Thanks
Marita