As AI ‘very quickly’ blurs truth and fiction, experts warn of U.S. threat

Researchers warn AI-generated disinformation will be increasingly coming from the United States, particularly amid future battles over Alberta and Quebec independence.

Less than two years ago, a federal government report warned Canada should prepare for a future where, thanks to artificial intelligence, it is “almost impossible to know what is fake or real.”

Now, researchers are warning that moment may already be here, and senior officials in Ottawa this week said the government is “very concerned” about increasingly sophisticated AI-generated content like deepfakes impacting elections.

“We are approaching that place very quickly,” said Brian McQuinn, an associate professor at the University of Regina and co-director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data and Conflict.

He added the United States could quickly become a top source of such content — a threat that could accelerate amid future independence battles in Quebec and particularly Alberta, which has already been seized on by some U.S. government and media figures.

“We are 100 per cent guaranteed to be getting deepfakes originating from the U.S. administration and its proxies, without question,” said McQuinn. “We already have, and it’s just the question of the volume that’s coming.”

During a House of Commons committee hearing on foreign election interference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national security and intelligence advisor Nathalie Drouin said Canada expects the U.S., like all other foreign nations, to stay out of its domestic political affairs.

That came in response to the lone question from MPs about the possibility of the U.S. becoming a foreign interference threat on par with Russia, China or India.

The rest of the two-hour hearing focused on the previous federal election and whether Ottawa is prepared for future threats, including AI and disinformation.