The caucus group was launched to deal with emerging technology such as AI, blockchain

A member of parliament and a Canadian senator concerned about the pace of technology versus regulation announced that they are forming a parliamentary caucus on emerging technologies.

Citing blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) as two forms of technology that are rapidly impacting Canada’s social and economic fabric, Michelle Rempel Garner and Colin Deacon said they launched the cross-party task force of Canadian parliamentarians. They said they have come together in response to a rapidly changing technology landscape that presents opportunities and challenges for Canada.

Garner is the PC MP for Calgary Nose Hill, while caucus co-chair Deacon is a Canadian senator.

“I think we can work together on issues and not let these conversations become partisan.”

Deacon told BetaKit that they want to review between the House and the Senate whether they can begin to address the opportunities and challenges associated with some of the emerging technologies in a more agile way than is currently done.

“Tact is the biggest issue,” Deacon said.

Deacon pointed to Bill C-27 as an example. The bill, entitled An Act to enact the Consumer Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts, was introduced a year ago.

Deacon said the bill will go to committee in September, and he doesn’t know how long it will sit there and what changes might take place. “The legislation is probably a year away from being enacted, and then a two- or three-year process of developing the regulations that will actually shape how that legislation works,” he noted.

“The process is so long … are there ways we can be more agile?” Deacon asked rhetorically.

Rempel said the new group will aim to act as a flexible forum to connect all interested parliamentarians with a wide range of stakeholders engaged in relevant fields, from artificial intelligence, web3, blockchain technologies and more.

“We will do this to educate and, where possible, identify areas of consensus on principles related to the role of government and policy goals that can best promote positive outcomes for Canadians,” she said.

Deacon said he would like to see regulators and innovators become much closer. He noted that it is difficult for regulators to deal with any of the technologies until they understand what is involved, and what can be controlled and what cannot.

“There is an idea that there should be a pause in large language models for generative AI,” Deacon said. “Firstly, I’m not of the view that that’s reasonable because bad actors will continue to move on and only the good guys will potentially stop. We need to get parliamentarians in a position where we can start to find a way to keep up on.”

Deacon referenced recent open letters from the likes of Yoshua Bengio, the co-founder of Montréal-based Mila, along with hundreds of technology leaders, artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, politicians and other stakeholders, urging all AI labs to agree. to a six-month break on training systems more powerful than GPT-4.

Deacon suggested that parliamentarians need to become more comfortable with the opportunities and challenges they face and start chatting about the options while building some inter-parliamentary cooperation, support and consensus.

But is it possible? During debates on Bill C-11, the so-called online streaming bill, passed into law on April 27 with over 100 amendments, an attempt was made to rush the bill through Parliament, according to news reports. But senators said at the time they would not be pressured to scramble through some 150 proposed amendments to the bill, despite pressure from the government.

“I think we can work together on issues and not let these conversations become partisan,” Deacon declared. “This isn’t about someone aggregating partisan discussions. It’s [about] trying to learn and see what our options might be as Canadians.”

Ultimately, Deacon hopes the caucus group will discover approaches that allow Canadians to be far more nimble in how they take advantage of the opportunities technology can bring and how they manage the risks of new technologies.

“If we can do that, I would feel a lot more confident about the future,” he said. not the creative end of it.”