on. Julie Miville-Dechêne: My question is for Senator Moreau.
Our leading expert on AI, Quebec researcher Yoshua Bengio, recently issued some dire warnings to the United Nations Security Council, which he repeated on a prime-time program, “Tout le monde en parle.”
Mr. Bengio is urging the Canadian government, and others for that matter, to establish guidelines to ensure that superintelligence does not become a threat to the planet by launching autonomous cyberattacks, which is something that recently happened.
I’m aware that you recently provided funding for the work of LoiZéro, Yoshua Bengio’s company. However, what sort of guidelines, regulations or licences do you think are necessary to prevent the commercial interests behind AI from doing as they please without any regard for the dangers to humanity?
Hon. Pierre Moreau (Government Representative in the Senate): Senator Miville-Dechêne, I’m very pleased to see you again.
The government takes the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence, and artificial superintelligence in particular, very seriously.
Government Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which our colleague Senator Hay has kindly agreed to sponsor, is designed to make AI companies responsible for identifying and preventing the risks associated with insidious and dangerous content. As an aside, today we’re welcoming a new colleague who is very knowledgeable about AI and who will certainly help the Senate with this work.
The government has also invested $50 million to ensure that the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute has the expertise and capacity to identify risk factors and conduct transparent evaluations of the world’s most advanced models.
Senator Miville-Dechêne: Is that enough?
A Labour MP in the United Kingdom introduced a bill in Parliament earlier this month to outright ban the development of artificial superintelligence on U.K. soil in order to contain its catastrophic risks. Seventy parliamentarians, former ministers and experts with ControlAI support this initiative.
What are your thoughts on this approach?
Senator Moreau: As I understand the AI field, it’s like building a plane while flying it.
I’d like to call your attention to the Prime Minister’s speech on this matter. He pointed out that our planet is a small world, and he called on the international community to create a global body to oversee the development and progress of AI. The government believes that what we need is a comprehensive, multilateral approach, rather than seeing —
The Hon. the Speaker: Thank you, Senator Moreau.