Canada recently completed an online consultation about our country's AI strategy. There has been much criticism that the AI task force that was created is overly representative of the tech industry and not representative enough of Canadian society.
I agree. When I started the survey I found it overly focused on acceleration, competition, adoption, basically an overall frame of tech FOMO that we appear to be suffering as a country. We appear to have forgotten that we haven't come close to getting overall digital transformation and inclusion right and that we continue to ignore a growing digital divide.
Some of my thoughts:
Ethical & responsible AI is of growing concern to many Canadians. Canada can & should align with EU & other privacy-focused jurisdictions and regulators to grow the future of AI. Innovation and regulation are not at odds. If we look at the Global Innovation Index, where Canada ranks 17th &most of the top 15 countries are from the EU. We need to stop looking south of our border for inspiration & models of how to lead the world. They are not a model for us to aspire to. First mover advantage is completely irrelevant to our economy & to having a "research edge." We can & should focus on breakthroughs on responsible & transparent AI development, use, literacy, & leadership. Our fundamental research helped move AI forward, perhaps we should have paid more attention to harnessing the ethical side of AI in that work instead of hoping for industry adoption. Refocusing our AI research and work on what matters to Canadians, with an ethical & responsible foundation, are what we should aspire to. I've written about inclusion by design in tech previously.
We need to start with a more representative AI Task Force with a focus on ensuring that Canada leads on ethical and responsible AI. Ensure that those not currently at the table are brought to the table, not just for cross-sectoral collaboration, but with a leadership voice at the table. Public research efforts must hold high standards for ethical and responsible AI that includes private corporations that adhere to those standards. Industry-sponsored research that includes government participation of money must also meet these standards.
Build local talent, bring talent from abroad through targeted immigration. Build the highest standards of ethical, transparent, & responsible AI development. Focus AI on meeting actual needs in ways that adhere with privacy legislation & high levels of privacy and security baked in to ensure that Canadians, & our data, are protected.
AI has potential in all sectors. But focus on public & social sectors first which drive our country's GDP in higher percentages, employ more people, than many private sector industries, but are typically the last priority. Flip the model to make them the priority. Build with sectors that have existing strong regulatory frameworks, such as health, around privacy & personal data, and build AI with those foundations. Focus where digital transformation itself continues to be lacking, build that infrastructure first, with the medium to long-term goal of incorporating AI once those foundations are set & strong.
Our governments have not yet managed to address the digital divide & ensure digital inclusion is a priority. Which means that any AI strategy that does not first tackle these challenges is destined to fail. Stop focusing first on AI adoption, & focus on digital literacy, skills, & inclusion, with AI built in. Address the cascade of privacy policy failures – we have privacy policy that is there but weakly enforced, runs into copyright issues by big companies that centralizes their power, b/c of concentration of copyright we have competition issues and concentration of power where big companies own everything, which leads to sovereignty issues. Privacy is foundational. If we don’t get it right everything else gets compromised. Build towards & exceed EU & other jurisdictions with strong policy regulation.
Metrics to identify digital literacy & how the digital divide has been adequately addressed is key. Engaging with & adopting AI is pointless without a literate populace. Research tells us that most large-scale tech programs at typical large companies fail. They are not what we should aspire to. Yet that appears to be your focus. Companies & Canadians require high digital & AI maturity to implement large-scale tech programs successfully. Address the foundations. Create national measures of digital & AI maturity for all Canadians.
That is the only way forward successfully, not chasing AI adoption because of FOMO.
Here are a few interesting and thoughtful submissions you should be aware of that try to address this fatal flaw in our government's strategy.
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