EU AIA: agreement on Europe’s new AI regulatory opus

EU AIA

The EU Council and Parliament agreed on December 8, 2023 to a ground breaking, but controversial, law (the AIA) to regulate certain AI systems. The Commission proposal, originally presented in April 2021, is a key element of the EU’s policy intended to foster the development, investment and uptake across the EU of safe and lawful AI that respects fundamental rights and mitigates risks associates with AI systems. It does so by classifying AI systems in categories deemed too unacceptable to be used, AI systems that are “high risk” or pose “systemic risks”, or those with lesser risks that still require at least some level of regulatory control, and regulates them according to that classification.…

Barry Sookman INDU Appearance on AIDA

AIDA: my appearance before the INDU Committee

I appeared before then INDU Committee on Bill C-27 yesterday. My opening remarks are set out below.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear.

I am Senior Counsel with McCarthy Tetrault with a practice focused on technology, intellectual property, and privacy. I am the author of several books in the field including an 8 volume treatise on Computer, Internet and e-commerce law. I am here in my personal capacity.

Although my remarks will focus on AIDA, I have submitted to the Clerk numerous articles I published related to the CPPA and AIDA which contain much needed recommendations for improvements.…

Minister Champagne and AIDA

Minister provides proposed amendments to AIDA

The ISED Minister has now released the amendments it proposes to AIDA together with an explanatory letter. They can be accessed here and here (English) and here and here (French). Thee will need careful study.…

UK AI Bill to regulate AI

UK AI Regulation Bill

A private members Bill introduced into the UK House of Lords entitled the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill [HL] is an example of a model agile law to regulate AI. It may provide a roadmap as to how to improve AIDA, a draft law that is part of Bill C-27 and widely acknowledged to be flawed.

Like AIDA, it permits a Minister, the Secretary of State, to enact regulations to govern AI systems. However, the regulations are backstopped by a mechanism to maintain Parliamentary sovereignty over the regulatory process that requires the most important regulations to be to laid before and approved by resolution of both Houses of Parliament.…

Minister Champagne and AIDA

Government proposals to amend AIDA: the challenges ahead Part 2

AIDA has been subject to widespread and sustained criticisms. I summarized many of them in my blog posts AIDA’s regulation of AI in Canada: questions, criticisms and recommendations and AIDA Companion Document: overview and questions (my “prior blog posts”). But, there have been many others who have similarly criticized AIDA including Prof. Scassa, Prof. Geist, Bianca Wylie (member of the advisory boards for the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC), The Computational Democracy Project and senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation), by many organizations and individuals in an open letter to the Minister, and by witnesses before the INDU Committee studying Bill C-27.…

Minister Champagne and AIDA

Government proposals to amend CPPA and AIDA: the good, the bad, and the challenges ahead Part 1

In response to criticisms about Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, and especially criticisms related to AIDA, the Government disclosed amendments it proposes to make while the Bill is before the INDU Committee. This blog focuses on the proposed amendments and, in particular, the areas where the Minister’s proposed amendments have helped to move the Bill in the right direction or have failed to address or failed adequately to address criticisms of the Bill.

I first provide some background explaining the genesis of the amendments and then provide an analysis of the amendments.…

Contracting for AI in tech contracts

Contracting for tech under the AI provisions of CPPA, AIDA and Law 25

I had the pleasure to speak at the McCarthy Tetrault AI Summit along with my colleague Mike Scherman. The AI summit was attended by over 1,000 McCarthy Clients eager to hear about AI legal and regulation issues.

Mike and I spoke on the topic of Contracting for tech under the AI provisions of CPPA, AIDA and Law 25. We stressed the importance of including present and future AI regulatory issues in the tech contracting process.

Our slides can be accessed below.…

AIDA Amendments

AIDA

AIDA Companion Document: overview and questions

ISED released a document purporting to explain the purposes and scope of AIDA and how the regulations will be rolled out. The long expected document, The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA): Companion Document was released in anticipation of debates about AIDA in Parliament. The Companion Document is meant to provide assurances about AIDA, to quell the considerable unease among MPs and members of the public that AIDI is nothing but a shell of a bill with no details of what AI systems it will apply to and how it will regulate them. …

AIDA - Regulation of AI systems in Canada

AIDA’s regulation of AI in Canada: questions, criticisms and recommendations

1. Background and Overview

Canada is planning to enact Bill C‑27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act (“DIA”) to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act (PIDTA), and Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). In prior blog posts, I addressed some of the more important problems with the CPPA. This post focuses on questions, criticisms, and recommendations about AIDA, the government’s draft law to regulate AI systems in Canada.…

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