Canadian courts and law societies, alike, are faced with an ever-evolving challenge: straddling the line between recognizing the potential benefits of emergent generative artificial intelligence GenAI, while balancing the associated risks of using this technology. Principle to these associated risks is the ability of GenAI to hallucinate i.e., generate incorrect information.
On September 26, 2023, the House of Common s Standing Committee on Industry and Technology the Standing Committee embarked on a comprehensive examination of Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act. If passed, this legislation would repeal part 1 of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and enact three separate Acts designed to revamp privacy laws and govern the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence in Canada.
The federal government has recently released its voluntary Code of Practice the Code relating to advanced generative artificial intelligence AI systems. The code identifies measures that organizations are encouraged to adopt when they are developing generative AI systems.
The Canadian government continues to take note and react to the widespread use of generative artificial intelligence AI. Generative AI is a type of AI that generates output that can include text, images or other materials, and is based on material and information that the user inputs e.g., ChatGPT, Dall-E 2 and Midjourney. In recent development, the Canadian government has: 1 opened up consultation on a proposed Code of Practice the Code and provided a proposed framework for the Code; and 2 published a Guide on the use of Generative AI for federal institutions on September 6th, 2023.
The use of artificial intelligence AI in the preparation of materials filed with the courts has been the subject of recent practice directions, with certain Canadian courts requiring that any reliance on AI by a litigant must be disclosed.