SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Committee

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 20, 2023
Context: Committee Evidence - HUMA-89 (HUMA) - Nov/20/23
The Chair
  • 12:53:56 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
Does that address...? You still have time to get back. I think it's very clear that the committee is unanimous. It is the CEO the committee wants to have appear before it at the earliest opportunity, and the CEO can bring support staff, as Mr. Aitchison pointed out, but the committee wishes to have the CEO. Seeing no dissent on that, I will ask the clerk to clearly get back to Air Canada on the wishes of this committee. Madam Zarrillo, you can go back to.... You still have several minutes.
92 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Ms. Bonita Zarrillo
  • 12:54:38 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee members, and I apologize to the witnesses. I wonder if I could go to witness Autor and then witness Janssen. If we run out of time, if either of those witnesses would like to respond to the committee in writing, that would be great. My question is around a federal advisory council that was proposed by past witnesses. I wonder, Mr. Autor, if you could talk about the top three topics that you think should be considered in a federal advisory council, and then Ms. Janssen could respond to the same question.
100 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Prof. David Autor
  • 12:55:04 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do support the idea of a federal advisory council, as all folks here today have testified. This is moving very fast. It poses new opportunities and new challenges. Bringing in top expertise in an advisory role is an excellent idea. Of the three topics I would most address, one is how to use the technology to augment labour rather than automate it. I don't think we should take as a given that augmentation necessarily occurs. Countries steer technologies. Nuclear energy is used by North Korea solely for offensive weapons. It's used by Japan solely for energy generation. They have no offensive nuclear weapons. That's a choice of a country; it's not a characteristic of technology. How to use it well to augment workers is the first thing. The second thing is protection for workers. As I noted, undue surveillance, high-stakes decision-making by opaque algorithms, and AI's appropriation of workers' creative work without compensation should be regulated. We have fair use when it comes to intellectual property, but the laws were not written for AI. The final thing I would say is on visibility into these technologies. They are opaque. They're making high-stakes decisions, and often the creators of technologies will not even disclose what sources of data have been used for training. I don't think that's acceptable. I think there's a public interest in making sure that machines that are making important decisions—and valuable decisions; I use and support AI—need to be understandable to regulators and to consumers.
269 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Ms. Bonita Zarrillo
  • 12:56:42 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
Thank you so much. I'm so interested in this appropriation of expertise and creativity without compensation. Ms. Janssen, do you have three topics that you would want to have considered?
31 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Ms. Nicole Janssen
  • 12:57:08 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
The cat's out of the bag with AI. We're not putting it back. By the way, I am fully supportive of the committee. I would have the committee focus on the education, upscaling and supports we need to provide to our workforce as this begins to roll out. This means identifying those early, disrupted professions, following them, seeing what lessons can be learned from those professions, and then perfecting that change management as it rolls out across all sectors and professions. Then there is the responsible AI piece, which is the transparency, accountability, privacy and all of those pieces that come with responsible AI. That and the direct impacts on workers would be the areas I would focus on.
121 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
The Chair
  • 12:58:03 p.m.
  • Watch
  • Read Aloud
Is that it, Ms. Zarrillo? We don't have enough time to go with another round, because we have one minute left. With that, I'll call for the adjournment of the committee meeting.
34 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border