Ontario watchdogs release strategy for ‘responsible’ use of artificial intelligence
Global News
Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner and Human Rights Commissioner issued a joint set of principles designed to help the Ontario government deploy AI.
A pair of Ontario watchdogs is launching a new document to guide the responsible use of artificial intelligence in the province, leapfrogging the Ford government’s years-long effort to create an official AI framework.
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) and Human Rights Commissioner (OHRC) issued a joint set of principles designed to help the Ontario government, broader public sector and private sector determine how to deploy AI and when to pull the plug.
The IPC said her office has already received a number of complaints and carried out investigations over the burgeoning use of AI in the province and the concerns that come along with it.
Students at one university, for example, raised concerns about AI-enabled online proctoring software being used to monitor them while they were writing an exam.
The complaint triggered an investigation and guidance from the privacy commissioner about using AI “appropriately and responsibly” in a way that balanced the rights of student privacy and ensured the information was accurate.
Similarly, the human rights commissioner said her office was concerned that, without guardrails, biases in AI-driven research could lead to “unintended consequences” and impact “historically marginalized individuals or groups.”
“We want the people of Ontario to benefit from AI,” said Patricia DeGuire, the Ontario human rights chief commissioner.
“But as a social justice oversight, we must take the lead in preparing citizens and institutions on the innovation, the monitoring, the implementation of these systems, because an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”
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