Industry, Science and Technology Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Friday announced that he has called for an urgent meeting with Canada’s AI Advisory Council to discuss Ottawa’s next steps in ensuring the responsible use of AI in the country.
“AI needs guardrails,” Minister Champagne said in a tweet.
AI needs guardrails – now.
That’s why I have called for an urgent meeting with Canada's AI Advisory Council to discuss next steps for our country on ensuring the responsible use of AI. pic.twitter.com/pSnvH1VDjf
— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦 (@FP_Champagne) March 31, 2023
Conversational and creative AI like OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, is still in its infancy but growing at an unprecedented rate — both in popularity and capability. ChatGPT hit 100 million daily active users in record time, and OpenAI earlier this month unveiled GPT-4, the latest iteration of the large language model that powers it.
Minister Champagne’s call for an urgent meeting on responsible AI use comes after experts and ethicists raised concerns over the potential abuse the technology opens the door to, along with the risks it poses to human civilization.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk previously said he believes AI represents one of the “biggest risks” to humans. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, meanwhile, called ChatGPT the most revolutionary tech advancement of his time.
While there’s no doubt that AI has immense potential, there’s an argument to be made for its development and use to be regulated. Earlier this week, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Musk, and dozens of other tech big-names called for a temporary suspension on the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
What do you think the Canadian government’s next steps should be when it comes to ensuring responsible AI use? Let us know in the comments below.
