Warnings over ‘headlong embrace’ of AI

Stakeholders from unions and academia are warning the Canadian Federal Government against a headlong embrace of artificial intelligence as a silver bullet for efficiency and cost-savings.

They want the Government to first put in place a system to govern the use of AI in public sector workplaces.

Law Professor at the University of Ottawa and an expert in cyber security, Karen Eltis said the Government had an opportunity to do this now before AI use developed out of its control.

“The Government must regulate AI in a way that fosters citizen confidence and addresses all the issues,” Professor Eltis said.

Earlier this year, the Federal Government said it was increasingly looking for artificial intelligence to make or support administrative decisions to improve service delivery.

In a statement, it said it was committed to using artificial intelligence in a manner that was compatible with core principles of administrative law such as transparency, accountability, legality, and procedural fairness.

However, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is warning against over-reliance on technology.

President of the PIPSC, Jennifer Carr said an over-reliance on technology could lead to the delusion that it was a panacea and could cut workforces.

"When we switched over to [the automated Federal pay system] Phoenix, we got rid of our pay and compensation advisers because the system would do more and more decisions automated, but that didn't work out and you know we are still paying for it seven years later," Ms Carr said.

Yoshua Bengio, an expert in AI, has called on Governments worldwide to consider the dangers that AI could pose.

“There is no guarantee that someone in the foreseeable future won’t develop dangerous autonomous AI systems with behaviour that deviates from human goals and values,” Professor Bengio said.

“The short and medium term risks — manipulation of public opinion for political purposes, especially through disinformation — are easy to predict, unlike the longer-term risks.

He suggested future AI systems could be harmful despite the programmers’ objectives.

Overall, more than 10 per cent of Canadian Public Servants said they have used AI tools such as ChatGPT in their work, with 61 per cent of those officials either excited or positive about the opportunity to use AI to process large amounts of data.