The future of AI governance a balancing act of privacy, ethics, and progress

A high-profile report from America’s National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence defines the AI race between the United States and China as a value-based competition. While both nations frame tech debates through two distinct lenses, Beijing is emerging as a norm entrepreneur in key aspects of digital governance. In light of these trends, the U.S. and its closest allies, including Canada, have a democratic imperative to design rights-based AI governance models. Such governance prototypes can be a catalyst in nudging the ethical adoption of AI across liberal democracies—and act as a counterweight to China’s continued rise as a disruptive power in the digital realm. Washington’s hesitancy in crafting a national AI policy comes down to a simple objective: it wants to foster a commercial ecosystem free of regulations, over a quest to champion U.S. companies in a race to the bottom against China. Leveraging such an approach brings with it a fundamental challenge: without regulatory oversight, entrenched forms of discrimination and prejudices can flourish via AI. Facial-recognition software in particular is often biased against people of colour, particularly women, ensuing from a lack of diversity in a tech industry that has historically been criticized for perpetuating discrimination. This raises concerns about algorithmic biases embedded within AI-based national security and surveillance architectures. Aftab Ahmed is a master of public policy candidate with the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Photograph courtesy of Aftab Ahmed Let me be clear: technology is not the enemy. Novel innovations can undeniably act as positive economic disruptors. The U.S. remains the largest destination for private AI-focused funding and the need to amplify state-backed research in this industry is vital. As a matter of institutional priority, Washington should design a policy framework that can limit algorithmic biases, protect privacy rights, and stimulate literacy initiatives to reduce the deficit of trust towards complex technologies. China, on the other hand, has taken an alternative “hands-on” approach towards regulating its overarching digital landscape. State surveillance and data-driven tools, such as Beijing’s infamous social credit system, are dependent on the use of AI to exert an extraordinary amount of control in the lives of Chinese citizens. Beyond this, Beijing is harnessing the power of a growing tech industry, and capitalizing on its aspirations pertaining to the Digital Silk Road as a means of enhancing both the capacity of its companies to operate in emerging economies, and in disseminating its ideology of networked authoritarianism towards Asia and beyond. China is exporting its digital infrastructure towards foreign markets, including satellite-navigation systems, quantum computing, and AI. Beijing’s objective is dangerous: maintain the liberal economic system that has permitted its rise, while promoting an illiberal international political environment. By defining hardline rules for the digital world, China is providing instructions on how to misuse technology as a vehicle to exert totalitarian control. And President Xi Jinping’s growing list of allies, a combination of autocracies and “hybrid” regimes, are integrating this philosophy towards their governance structures. So, what is Ottawa’s role in all this? The federal government recently launched the second phase of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, which includes a $443-million investment to accelerate tech exploration and commercialization, enhance the domestic research base and talent pool, and help citizens benefit from the advancement of information and communications technology. Ottawa’s attempts to frame the “rules of the game” for its digital economy are commendable, and the U.S. should be observing and emulating this approach in moulding a federally regulated AI ecosystem. To solidify its position in the international arena, Ottawa can spearhead networks that seek to foster transnational conversations around AI governance. In fact, Canada has the soft-power capacity and diplomatic legacy to undertake a leadership role in multilateral forums, such as the G20, and advocate for standards that promote diversity, inclusion, and fairness in AI governance. Ottawa’s immediate priority is centred on Bill C-27, a proposed legislative instrument that would define how tech companies engage with citizens in the digital economy. With this bill, Parliamentarians aim to establish a comprehensive legal framework to standardize the development, use, and sharing of AI and data, by focusing on three core devices: the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act, and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act. The overarching objective for the U.S. and Canada in this environment is clear: democracy needs to be protected from a chaotic information ecosystem. Framing AI regulation as a democratic imperative is pivotal in shaping a coalition of like-minded countries that can counter China’s rise in this space. Otherwise, Beijing will continue giving lessons on how to weaponize technology—and the growing trend of global de-democratization will persist. Aftab Ahmed is a master of public policy candidate with the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, where he is the editor-in-chief of the policy newsletter The Bell. The Hill Times

The future of AI governance a balancing act of privacy, ethics, and progress

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The future of AI governance a balancing act of privacy, ethics, and progress

Rights-based AI governance models can be a catalyst in nudging the ethical adoption of AI across liberal democracies—and act as a counterweight to China’s continued rise as a disruptive power in the digital realm.

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