Should lawmakers regulate it? This is one of the key questions facing governments and industry leaders as they grapple to establish effective global coordination and oversight of AI.
Members of the media may directly contact the following uOttawa academic experts:
Umar Ruhi (English only)
Full Professor, Business Analytics & Information Systems, Telfer School of Management.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Professor Ruhi’s research interests lie at the intersection of information systems and knowledge management, including human–AI collaboration, AI governance and digital misinformation.
“With new evidence of frontier systems enabling sophisticated cyber operations and taking consequential actions beyond their intended scope, the debate about slowing down development is no longer theoretical or anticipatory. Whether it is malicious actors using increasingly capable AI, autonomous AI systems taking unauthorized actions, or AI systems increasingly contributing to the development of successor systems, these developments suggest that capability growth is beginning to outpace the safeguards, evaluation methods, and governance mechanisms needed to manage it responsibly. The major concern is a growing governance-capability gap, where our ability to evaluate, contain, and govern these systems is not keeping pace with the capabilities we are creating.”
Jason Millar (English only)
Associate Professor, School of Engineering Design and Teaching Innovation, Faculty of Engineering; Canada Research Chair in Ethical Engineering of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics; and Director of the Canadian Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Ethical Design Lab (CRAiEDL).
[email protected]
Dr. Jason Millar researches the ethical engineering of robotics and AI, with his work focusing primarily on the ethics, policy and engineering of automated vehicles, artificial intelligence, healthcare robotics, and social and military robotics.
Karen Eltis (English and French)
Full Professor, Faculty of Law - Civil Law Section.
[email protected]
Professor Karen Eltis specializes in artificial intelligence law and cyberlaw from a comparative perspective, including its use and impact on the Canadian court system. She can discuss:
- Digital sovereignty and AI.
- Danger of 'cognitive surrender'.
- Question not of accuracy/effectiveness of AI but of legitimacy and trust.
- AI deployment in the justice system.
- Issue of competition
Channarong Intahchomphoo (English only)
Adjunct Professor, School of Engineering Design and Teaching Innovation, Faculty of Engineering.
[email protected]
Professor Intahchomphoo's research explores the societal impact of AI and robotics with his work focusing on the responsible design of AI systems, to help guide engineers, business leaders and policymakers in incorporating social responsibility in technology practices.
"The current discussion about apocalyptic AI warnings is not new, with elements of this scenario emerging for some time. AI is already being used in automated drone targeting systems in Ukraine-Russia and Iran-U.S. wars, representing a new era of AI-powered warfare. A professional code of conduct for AI is not going to work. We can create a strong AI safety code of conduct, but if companies, governments, and AI engineers are unwilling to follow it, it becomes ineffective.
Should government regulators get involved? Yes. Governments should have been involved in AI safety regulation much earlier. AI regulation will slow innovation but that is precisely their purpose. Countries could introduce restrictions on access to powerful AI systems and limits on personal ownership of advanced AI GPUs. AI data centers could be subject to strict controls regarding who can access them and for what purposes AI can be used.
We cannot predict with certainty what will happen next; therefore, apocalyptic warnings and claims AI could wipe out humanity by 2030 are not overly dramatic. One of the most important things we can do now is to educate one another about AI literacy, understanding how to use AI to gain benefits while also understanding the risks that come with it. The technical community and AI policymakers need to work together to develop plans and actions for containing AI safety incidents, minimizing their effects on society, and responding quickly before problems spread more widely."
Kelly Bronson (English and French)
Canada Research Chair in Science and Society; Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society; and Associate Professor, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences.
[email protected] (French interviews: only print or pre-taped, please)
Professor Bronson’s research focuses on Canada’s approach to AI, including the social, ethical and sustainable development of the technology. She aims to marry public values with technical know-how in the production of governance frameworks and processes around tech which are ethical and robust.
“There needs to be better regulation around the societal - including environmental - impacts from AI and infrastructure, not just for public safety but also for confidence in the technologies, the industry and investment. When tech announces the end of humanity there is a little bit of a hype (the P(doom)) happening, which distracts from the everyday impacts which need immediate attention, such as where are we citing data centres. These have a disastrous environmental justice effects on fence-line communities (those living next to any hyper scale facilities).”