Responding to Bill C-27’s proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act, Jamie Duncan and Wendy H. Wong explain why Canadians need data and privacy legislation that protects us not just from individual dangers, but collective harms as well.

How will Bill C-27’s Consumer Privacy Protection Act change the obligations of large internet platforms and search engines, especially with respect to their ability to target advertising and recommend content? Open questions remain around the new legislation that hinge on the interpretation of platforms’ necessary and legitimate interests.

Does Canada’s newly-proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act sufficiently promote and protect the digital identities of youth? Guest contributor Michael J. S. Beauvais and Leslie Regan Shade argue that the draft legislation takes a thin view of consent and choice requirements for online services, and that clearer and more stringent rules around data privacy are needed.

SRI Director and Chair Gillian Hadfield has been named a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, joining a growing cohort of leaders in the country’s robust artificial intelligence research ecosystem. The chairs will help advance Canadian leadership in priority areas under the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. Hadfield is the first social scientist affiliated with the Vector Institute to be named to the program.

How can we harness the economic benefits of AI innovation? In June 2022, the Schwartz Reisman Institute convened a roundtable with the Business Development Bank of Canada to explore how AI can be better used in financial services, featuring panelists from financial institutions, leading startups, universities, and government. The event’s findings have been issued in a new report that details the importance of responsible AI and new approaches to regulation.

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.

How is virtual reality changing the way we live? Does living in a virtual landscape create new ethical and moral problems? At the first annual Technophilosophy September Soirée, SRI Research Lead Karina Vold convened an interdisciplinary panel of University of Toronto scholars to discuss the impacts of new technologies on the way we understand our world.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute is launching a new speaker and mentorship series to promote gender equity in artificial intelligence research, in collaboration with Deloitte. The Women in AI series will convene leading female AI researchers to share knowledge through seminar events that promote opportunities for women across the technology sector.

SRI Graduate Fellow Reid McIlroy-Young’s new research explores the concept of “mimetic models”: algorithms designed to simulate the behaviour of an individual in new situations. In a new paper, McIlroy-Young reflects on the ethical implications of such models, in what scenarios they might be used, and directions for future research.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto has appointed five new research leads to help shape the Institute’s ongoing research program. The new research leads bring expertise and insights on the social impacts of artificial intelligence from the fields of economics, computer science, literature, and philosophy.

The SRI Seminar Series convenes the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s community to discuss cutting-edge ideas and scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. The 2022 Fall Seminar Series begins on September 14, 2022 with a presentation by Julie Shah, director of the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.