Facing Reality: Canada Needs to Think about Extended Reality and AI

Although Canada is a leader in becoming the first nation to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, it is falling behind other countries in extended reality (XR) competitiveness. In this paper, the authors look at why Canada is lagging in this area and what can be done to bring the country up to speed with its peers. The authors argue that more attention and funding should be directed toward the development of XR technology in Canada because XR is already a major contributor to the Canadian and global economy; XR and AI will shape future iterations of the internet; a variant of XR (digital twins, which serve as models of people or objects) can serve as tools to develop mitigating strategies for various types of complex problems; and other nations, such as China and South Korea, are investing heavily in XR technology to gain a competitive edge.

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How to Regulate AI? Start With the Data

We live in an era of data dichotomy. On one hand, AI developers rely on large data sets to “train” their systems about the world and respond to user questions. These data troves have become increasingly valuable and visible. On the other hand, despite the import of data, U.S. policy makers don’t view data governance as a vehicle to regulate AI.

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Building Trust in AI: A Landscape Analysis of Government AI Programs

Building Trust in AI: A Landscape Analysis of Government AI Programs

As countries around the world expand their use of artificial intelligence (AI), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed the most comprehensive website on AI policy, the OECD.AI Policy Observatory.

Although the website covers public policies on AI, Aaronson found that many governments failed to evaluate or report on their AI initiatives. This lack of reporting is a missed opportunity for policy makers to learn from their programs (the author found that less than one percent of the programs listed on the OECD.AI website had been evaluated).

In addition, Aaronson found discrepancies between what governments said they were doing on the OECD.AI website and what they reported on their own websites. In some cases, there was no evidence of government actions; in other cases, links to government sites did not work. Evaluations of AI policies are important because they help governments demonstrate how they are building trust in both AI and AI governance and that policy makers are accountable to their fellow citizens.

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America’s uneven approach to AI and its consequences

America’s uneven approach to AI and its consequences

The ecological balance of the ocean has been disturbed by invasive species and cholera. Many pesticides and nutrients used in agriculture end up in the coastal waters, resulting in oxygen depletion that kills marine plants and shellfish. Meanwhile the supply of fish is declining due to overfishing. Yet to flourish, humankind requires healthy oceans; the oceans generate half of the oxygen we breathe, and, at any given moment, they contain more than 97% of the world’s water. Oceans provide at least a sixth of the animal protein people eat. Living oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce climate change impacts.

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Data Minefield? How AI Is Prodding Governments to Rethink Trade in Data

DATA MINEFIELD? How AI Is Prodding Governments to Rethink Trade in Data

Many of the world’s leaders are focused on the opportunities presented by AI the machines, that, u systems or applications that can perform tasks

until recently, could only be performed by a human. In September 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian schoolchildren, “Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world (Putin quoted in RT.com 2017). Many countries, including Canada, China, the United States and EU member states, are competing to both lead the development of AI and dominate markets for AI.

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