| FIRST THING — Two connected sources told Playbook that Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND's first budget implementation bill is landing this Friday. It's the first look at how the Liberals plan to prioritize the many commitments flowing from Budget 2023. Stay tuned. CHATGPT VS. THE HOUSE — The Liberals want to regulate artificial intelligence, presumably before sentient machines consume us all in a terrifying techno-pocalypse. Innovation Minister FRANÇOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE was far less dramatic when he spoke to Bill C-27 at second reading last November. Champagne wants AI companies to "put in place measures to identify, assess and mitigate harms to the health, safety and well-being of Canadians." C-27 would force companies to "actively mitigate discrimination and bias" as they design AI systems. The bill is only part-AI. The rest of it would legislate a long-overdue overhaul of digital privacy rules. The NDP asked Speaker ANTHONY ROTA last year if the AI elements could be voted on separately. Rota ruled that MPs could do so. Liberals haven't appeared open to a split vote, but they haven't forced an end to the debate, either. — Inside the House: C-27 returns to the Commons for a fifth day of second-reading debate this week, likely on Thursday. — A letter-writing campaign: A letter in support of C-27 is circulating among AI researchers in Ontario and Quebec. The signatories could publish the letter in time for House debate — a symbol of key stakeholder support that Liberals could quote generously on the chamber floor. — Why something needs to happen: Playbook got on the horn with BLAKE RICHARDS. No, not the Tory MP — this is the assistant professor in the Montreal Neurological Institute and the School of Computer Science at McGill University. Richards is also a core faculty member at the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. We asked him why AI needs government regulation in the first place. "If you have AI models that can fool people into thinking they're other human beings, that also means that you can get up to a lot of nefarious s--t," he said. "You could manipulate democracy, you could convince people of falsehoods, you could spread vicious rumors about people, and the unsavvy would surely have no way of differentiating whether they were speaking to a model or a person and whether or not to trust what they were reading." — What about self-regulation? No, said Richards. "I don't think we can leave this up to the big tech companies in California. Even aside from the philosophical problem with doing that, I just don't trust those guys. I know enough about the culture in Silicon Valley to say that they think they're a lot smarter than they are." C-27 is a "good start," he says, which he supports in spirit. But there's a lot of work ahead. — Why? What's wrong with C-27? Critics say the bill's AI elements are vaguely written and the result of too little consultation with industry. Playbook obtained a briefing deck presented in March by Osler partner ADAM KARDASH, the chair of the firm's privacy and data management practice. Kardash pointed to the absence of an independent ombudsman "for reporting, compliance and enforcement" of penalties. Kardash also flagged that "vast swaths of detail" on compliance measures — and even the definition of a "high impact" AI system — will only be hammered out through a regulatory process that won't be debated in Parliament. Kardash recommended a return to the drawing board and broad consultations. — A rebuttal: Champagne's office insists the department "conducted consultations with AI leaders including from industry." And the government has committed to a "broad and inclusive consultation of industry, academia, civil society, and Canadian communities" after C-27 becomes law. — The NDP's view: The party's innovation critic, BRIAN MASSE, described the AI legislation as "very problematic" in a statement to Playbook: "From the business community to civil society groups to AI experts, all have expounded on the many issues and concerns with the bill in its present state." Know someone who could use Ottawa Playbook? Direct them to this link . Five days a week, zero dollars.
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