In a submission to a government consultation, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) acknowledged potential artificial intelligence (AI) transparency issues arising across these areas: AI-generated content, AI interaction, information about AI systems, AI incidents, and AI agents.
The OPC’s comment was in response to a discussion document titled “Enhancing trust in artificial intelligence through increased transparency” by Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
The OPC commended the Canadian government’s focus on increasing AI transparency. The OPC reiterated the need for transparency to increase public trust in AI, as emphasized in the G7 Data Protection and Privacy Authorities Roundtable statement and reaffirmed in the ISED discussion paper.
In its submission, the OPC agreed with ISED that increased transparency could also help keep consumers informed, enable experimentation and research, and promote fair competition among organizations.
The OPC submission then discussed the five areas identified by ISED. The OPC said taking action to address these five areas can help ensure and support responsible innovation.
AI-generated content
According to the OPC, focusing on informing people about whether online content is AI-generated in an effort to help them make appropriate decisions and reduce the risk of harm could downplay transparency’s possible benefits to those who are subjects of AI-generated content.
The OPC then suggested that data protection authorities could potentially be responsible for ensuring transparency in connection with AI-generated content.
The OPC highlighted the joint statement on AI-generated imagery and the protection of privacy signed by 66 data protection authorities, which listed key principles for organizations utilizing AI content generation systems. These principles included:
- ensuring meaningful transparency
- offering effective, accessible mechanisms to request the removal of harmful content involving personal information and to respond speedily to these requests
- tackling risks to children through enhanced safeguards and clear, age-appropriate information
AI interaction
The OPC identified two situations in which it is especially important for humans to know they are interacting with an AI system:
- when automated decision systems make or inform significant predictions, recommendations, or decisions about them
- when organizations collect or use their personal information
The OPC pointed to the four elements emphasized in its Guidelines on Obtaining Meaningful Consent, which might have some value for the government’s efforts to improve transparency around AI interactions:
- What personal information is the organization collecting?
- With which parties is the organization sharing the personal information?
- Why is the organization collecting, using, or disclosing the personal information?
- What are the risks of harm and other impacts?
Information about AI systems
In its submission, the OPC stressed the importance of disclosing the limitations and intended uses of AI systems.
“AI-based systems can make for powerful tools, but they are not omnipotent,” the OPC stated. “It is important for both individual and business users to understand their limitations.”
AI incidents
To support the clear disclosure of the known issues and limits of AI systems, the OPC suggested implementing a mechanism enabling users to report AI incidents and failure cases and ensuring that the developers regularly test such systems.
AI agents
“The OPC’s work on agentic AI systems is on-going, including through international engagement such as in the Global Privacy Assembly,” stated the OPC submission. “We would be happy to share information on this topic as it becomes available.”
Accessibility and understandability
Lastly, the OPC approved of the discussion document’s recognition of accessibility and understandability considerations.
“Future work on AI transparency could nevertheless benefit from explicitly identifying, as an objective, the provision of information necessary for informed decision-making in a format and at a point in time that enables individuals to understand and use that information,” stated the OPC submission.
More technology news
In September, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, Canada’s Digital Governance Council, and the Council of Canadian Innovators shared a plan to collaborate to ensure that the new European Union–Canada technological alliance would result in concrete commercial opportunities for both sides.
That same month, the Digital Governance Standards Institute announced the release of the second edition of its national standard on the use of biometrics for authentication.
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