Will Canada’s newly-proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) generate incentives for best practices when it comes to data privacy? SRI Associate Director Lisa Austin, Faculty Affiliates Aleksandar Nikolov and Nicolas Papernot, and Research Lead David Lie argue the CPPA’s reliance on deidentified data ensures it will fall short in protecting privacy.

In June 2022, the Canadian federal government introduced Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, which contains newly-proposed legislation relating to consumer privacy, data protection, and the first comprehensive laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in Canada. In the first of a series of posts covering the potential impact of Bill C-27, SRI Policy Researcher Maggie Arai explores the bill’s key takeaways.

What are the labour conditions involved in sourcing the data used by machine learning systems? New research from Milagros Miceli (DAIR Institute) and Julian Posada (Faculty of Information) explores how companies outsource their data annotation work, the implications of precarious labour conditions for data workers, and why respecting workers’ rights will yield better data.

In a panel co-hosted by the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and the Schwartz Reisman Institute, Jon R. Lindsay, Janice Stein, and Peter Loewen explored the impacts of emerging technologies on warfare, in the context of the ongoing Ukraine conflict.

In an op-ed reflecting on the entwined histories of science and religion, 2020–21 SRI Graduate Fellow Suzanne van Geuns reconsiders the often-maligned position of faith-based traditions in the research of artificial intelligence and natural evolution, exploring the generative points of connection between these different approaches towards knowledge.

Where is technology leading us? When we speak about the future, what does it mean for our identity as individuals and as citizens of states? When we arrive home, what will it look like? Themes of identity, place, and mediation were explored at the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s graduate workshop “Views on Techno-Utopia” by presenters Rushay Naik and Lilith Acadia.

In a recent TEDxToronto talk, SRI Director Gillian Hadfield examines how we can restore balance with big tech companies, and why it requires reinventing our rules for the 21st century. Hadfield argues that by developing new ways to become as innovative about our rule-making as we are about our technologies, we can meet today’s challenges.

Everyone from users to scholars to regulators has demanded greater transparency around recommender algorithms. What kind of information would be useful to ensure transparency, and can we even agree on what we mean by “transparency”? Guest contributor Jonathan Stray explores these questions on the Schwartz Reisman blog.

SRI Research Lead Wendy H. Wong examines the issues at stake around facial-recognition technology, and their impacts on human rights and consent. Wong argues data alters basic conceptions of autonomy and dignity in ways that “profoundly change human experience”—leading to a need to reconsider the framework of human rights for the digital era.

Guest blogger Kees Westland explains how the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent reference opinion about carbon pricing legislation could affect the analysis of Bill C-11. Can Parliament enact minimum national standards in areas of shared jurisdiction under the trade and commerce power? As Westland observes, the inherently global nature of a problem can be an argument in favour of a federal approach.

A new pilot program from U of T’s Department of Computer Science and the Schwartz Reisman Institute, led by Professors Sheila McIlraith and Diane Horton, will embed modules on ethics within undergraduate design courses, bringing greater attention for students on the social effects of technical systems.

SRI Director Gillian Hadfield and Vector Institute President and CEO Garth Gibson respond to the Ontario government’s new Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) Framework by articulating how to achieve fair and trustworthy AI while supporting robust investment in AI technologies.