Artificial Intelligence | Yoshua Bengio invites elected officials to “take their responsibilities”

(OTTAWA) After calling for a six-month pause in artificial intelligence (AI) research two weeks ago, scientist Yoshua Bengio is urging Canadian lawmakers to take responsibility by passing, as soon as possible, Bill C-27 which aims to regulate the development of this technology with multiple possibilities.

The study of this bill has made little progress since its introduction in the House of Commons by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, almost a year ago. The Conservative Party opposes it because it casts too wide a net. Result: a legislative showdown between the Trudeau government and the official opposition is delaying consideration of the bill, which is currently at second reading.

According to Mr. Bengio, an international authority on artificial intelligence, all elected officials must take seriously the need to regulate the use of this technology to ensure benefits for society. The researcher made this call after a meeting on Friday of the advisory council on AI convened by Minister Champagne.

“It’s really important to act now. There has been a fundamental change in the capabilities of these artificial intelligence systems, which can impersonate human beings. Elected officials must assume their responsibilities to Canadians, rise above partisanship and pass Bill C-27. It’s a good bill that will become an international benchmark,” argued Mr. Bengio in an interview with The Press at the end of the meeting.

Three new laws

Bill C-27 seeks to create three new laws: the Consumer Privacy Actthere Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act.

In addition to establishing common requirements across Canada for the design, development and use of AI systems, the law would prohibit conduct that could cause serious harm to individuals or harm to their interests. Fines or imprisonment could be imposed for violations of the law.

According to Mr. Bengio, this bill is an “example to follow” because it is based on “great principles” and allows adjustments to be made to protect the public as technology evolves in adopting necessary regulations. “It’s very important because things move very quickly in this area,” he explained.

Mr. Bengio and hundreds of leading tech figures around the world published an open letter on March 29 calling for a global six-month moratorium on AI development¹. They believe that such a moratorium is necessary to ensure that this technology is well regulated and used for the good of society.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp are among the signatories. Recall that Elon Musk already called AI in 2014 the “greatest existential threat” to humanity.

Mr. Champagne decided to convene an emergency meeting of the advisory committee following the advocacy of these experts.

So far, more than 20,000 people have signed the open letter which aimed to highlight that AI labs are now engaged in “an uncontrolled race to develop and deploy ever more powerful AI systems, that no one, not even their creators, cannot reliably understand, predict or control”.

According to Minister Champagne, it would be possible to pass Bill C-27 quickly if the official opposition showed goodwill.

“There are legitimate concerns that have been raised that have been exacerbated a bit by ChatGPT-4. We are asking more and more questions about the turn of artificial intelligence. I appeal to the civic sense of my colleagues in Parliament,” said Mr. Champagne, who granted an interview to The Press at the same time as Mr. Bengio.

“There is an urgent need to act to protect and innovate responsibly. To do this, we must set our national framework. And Bill C-27, for me, is important. Unfortunately, he is caught up in partisan politics. We must all rise above that to do what is in the national interest by giving ourselves a regulatory framework. This will then enable us to influence the international framework. »