Do Governments Have the Tools to Hold AI Firms to Account?

A recent UN Human Rights Office report acknowledges that AI systems’ impacts and risks are a matter of international human rights law, which entails binding obligations that exceed ethical guidelines for state actors and businesses. As Elizabeth M. Renieris writes, while companies have ample resources (but less incentive) to meet these obligations, we should be concerned about whether governments have the resources, and the political will, to fulfill their duties to hold these companies accountable.

Climate and other ecological changes are not easily dealt with using traditional approaches to security, defence, development and foreign policy. Among their recommendations in this latest Reimagining a Canadian National Security Strategy report, Simon Dalby and Leah Lawrence say it’s time for Canada to put substance behind the recent announcement that Canada will host a North Atlantic Treaty Organization-accredited Centre of Excellence on Climate and Security.

As Kent Roach writes, reconciling national security with democracy has always been among our greatest challenges, and it will only become more difficult as we face a growing list of security threats. Debates about the tension between public safety and democratic freedoms have always been complex but are about to get even more so, as we add social media platforms to a discussion that was once just the purview of governments.

Fretting about Canada’s exclusion from the new Pacific pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States has been overdone. But, as Stephanie Carvin writes, while the pact partners may have imperfect foreign and defence policies, they clearly understand the importance of setting goals and developing strategies, something that requires hard choices in an era of uncertainties. Canadians need to start asking hard questions as to why we are not doing the same.

Books about digital money and finance abound, most written by cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Paul Blustein looks at two new books for readers “seeking a reality-based perspective”: The Future of Money, by Eswar Prasad, and The Pay Off, by Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha de Terán. “Monetary traditionalists yearning for a lengthy belittlement of cryptocurrencies may be disappointed to hear that neither of these books treats the subject with derision,” Blustein says, but neither have they “drunk the crypto Kool-Aid.”

On October 14, CIGI hosted a discussion with Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien on privacy protection in the context of today’s information revolution, the data-driven economy and known risks within the evolving threat landscape. You can watch a recording of the event, including the Q&A session moderated by Aaron Shull, on CIGI’s YouTube channel.

Dec. 7 – 9:30 a.m. EST (UTC–05:00): CIGI is pleased to host His Excellency Cong Peiwu, China’s Ambassador to Canada, for a conversation with CIGI President Rohinton P. Medhora about China’s role in the global economy. In the wake of the G20 leaders’ summit and the WTO Ministerial Conference, this conversation will explore China’s role and influence in issues preoccupying governments worldwide, such as technology, trade, investment, climate change, and cyber and data governance. A Q&A period moderated by Medhora will follow.

Note: The date of this event has recently changed. To join us online on December 7, please register here.