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AI could have catastrophic consequences — is Canada ready?

Published

6 months ago

March 17, 2024

Nations — Canada included — are running out of time to design and implement comprehensive safeguards on the development and deployment of advanced artificial intelligence systems, a leading AI safety company warned this week.

In a worst-case scenario, power-seeking superhuman AI systems could escape their creators’ control and pose an “extinction-level” threat to humanity, AI researchers wrote in a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of State entitled Defence in Depth: An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI.

The department insists the views the authors expressed in the report do not reflect the views of the U.S. government.

But the report’s message is bringing the Canadian government’s actions to date on AI safety and regulation back into the spotlight — and one Conservative MP is warning the government’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act is already out of date.

AI vs. everyone

The U.S.-based company Gladstone AI, which advocates for the responsible development of safe artificial intelligence, produced the report. Its warnings fall into two main categories.

The first concerns the risk of AI developers losing control of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system. The authors define AGI as an AI system that can outperform humans across all economic and strategically relevant domains.

While no AGI systems exist to date, many AI researchers believe they are not far off.

“There is evidence to suggest that as advanced AI approaches AGI-like levels of human and superhuman general capability, it may become effectively uncontrollable. Specifically, in the absence of countermeasures, a highly capable AI system may engage in so-called power seeking behaviours,” the authors wrote, adding that these behaviours could include strategies to prevent the AI itself from being shut off or having its goals modified.

In a worst-case scenario, the authors warn that such a loss of control “could pose an extinction-level threat to the human species.”

“There’s this risk that these systems start to get essentially dangerously creative. They’re able to invent dangerously creative strategies that achieve their programmed objectives while having very harmful side effects. So that’s kind of the risk we’re looking at with loss of control,” Gladstone AI CEO Jeremie Harris, one of the authors of the report, said Thursday in an interview with CBC’s Power & Politics.

Artificial intelligence could pose extinction-level threat to humans, expert warns

A new report is warning the U.S. government that if artificial intelligence laboratories lose control of superhuman AI systems, it could pose an extinction-level threat to the human species. Gladstone AI CEO Jeremie Harris, who co-authored the report, joined Power & Politics to discuss the perils of rapidly advancing AI systems.

The second category of catastrophic risk cited in the report is the potential use of advanced AI systems as weapons.

“One example is cyber risk,” Harris told P&P host David Cochrane. “We’re already seeing, for example, autonomous agents. You can go to one of these systems now and ask,… ‘Hey, I want you to build an app for me, right?’ That’s an amazing thing. It’s basically automating software engineering. This entire industry. That’s a wicked good thing.

“But imagine the same system … you’re asking it to carry out a massive distributed denial of service attack or some other cyber attack. The barrier to entry for some of these very powerful optimization applications drops, and the destructive footprint of malicious actors who use these systems increases rapidly as they get more powerful.”

Harris warned that the misuse of advanced AI systems could extend into the realm of weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons.

The report proposes a series of urgent actions nations, beginning with the U.S., should take to safeguard against these catastrophic risks, including export controls, regulations and responsible AI development laws.

Is Canada’s legislation already defunct?

Canada currently has no regulatory framework in place that is specific to AI.

The government introduced the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) as part of Bill C-27 in November of 2021. It’s intended to set a foundation for the responsible design, development and deployment of AI systems in Canada.

The bill has passed second reading in the House of Commons and is currently being studied by the industry and technology committee.

The federal government also introduced in 2023 the Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems, a code designed to temporarily provide Canadian companies with common standards until AIDA comes into effect.

At a press conference on Friday, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked why — given the severity of the warnings in the Gladstone AI report — he remains confident that the government’s proposed AI bill is equipped to regulate the rapidly advancing technology.

“Everyone is praising C-27,” said Champagne. “I had the chance to talk to my G7 colleagues and … they see Canada at the forefront of AI, you know, to build trust and responsible AI.”

Conservative member of Parliament Michelle Rempel Garner says the government’s proposed artificial intelligence bill is out of date and inadequate. Rempel Garner is pictured here holding a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

In an interview with CBC News, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said Champagne’s characterization of Bill C-27 was nonsense.

“That’s not what the experts have been saying in testimony at committee and it’s just not reality,” said Rempel Garner, who co-chairs the Parliamentary Caucus on Emerging Technology and has been writing about the need for government to act faster on AI.

“C-27 is so out of date.”

AIDA was introduced before OpenAI, one of the world’s leading AI companies, unveiled ChatGPT in 2022. The AI chatbot represented a stunning evolution in AI technology.

“The fact that the government has not substantively addressed the fact that they put forward this bill before a fundamental change in technology came out … it’s kind of like trying to regulate scribes after the printing press has gone into widespread distribution,” said Rempel Garner. “The government probably needs to go back to the drawing board.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law hearing on artificial intelligence, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press)

In December 2023, Gladstone AI’s Harris told the House of Commons industry and technology committee that AIDA needs to be amended.

“By the time AIDA comes into force, the year will be 2026. Frontier AI systems will have been scaled hundreds to thousands of times beyond what we see today,” Harris told MPs. “AIDA needs to be designed with that level of risk in mind.”

Harris told the committee that AIDA needs to explicitly ban systems that introduce extreme risks, address open source development of dangerously powerful AI models, and ensure that AI developers bear responsibility for ensuring the safe development of their systems — by, among other things, preventing their theft by state and non-state actors.

“AIDA is an improvement over the status quo, but it requires significant amendments to meet the full challenge likely to come from near-future AI capabilities,” Harris told MPs.

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Jacob Trouba says ‘there’s no animosity’ toward Rangers following trade rumors

Published

22 mins ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said Thursday “there’s no animosity” toward the organization following an offseason in which his name was prominently mentioned in trade rumors.

“It’s part of the business of hockey,” Trouba said following the first day of training camp for the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers.

According to reports, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury had negotiated a trade that would send New York’s captain to Detroit in late June. The trade fell apart, however, when Trouba submitted his 15-team no-trade list to the Rangers on June 30 and included the Red Wings on it.

“Obviously, had the no-move that turned into the partial no-trade,” said Trouba, whom New York acquired in a trade with Winnipeg in June 2019 and signed to a seven-year, $56 million contract one month later. “That’s life, contracts, hockey business, whatever you want to call it.

“I knew that was coming that summer. It’s not by surprise. It was obviously something that was negotiated at the time.”

The 30-year-old’s insistence that his relationship with Drury is fine echoes what the executive said in a pre-training camp conference call with reporters.

“Jacob and I talk all the time as GM and captain should,” Drury said. “We’ve had a number of different conversations over the course of the summer on a lot of different things. He is very clear as to where he stands with me and what I think of him as a player and as a leader.”

Still, Trouba realizes that the 2024-25 season is likely the last for the current iteration of the Original Six franchise. The Rangers have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last three seasons, and have reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 and 2024. Following last spring’s six-game series loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, Drury wondered aloud in a conference call with reporters if the Rangers’ core players could lead the franchise to a Stanley Cup.

“(It’s) an opportunity that we have in front of us that in all likelihood will probably be the last crack for this core,” Trouba said. “I don’t think that’s a secret by any means. (A) group that’s kind of grown together, spent some years together here, and there’s something we want to accomplish.”

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Veterans Tyson Beukeboom, Karen Paquin lead Canada’s team at WXV rugby tournament

Published

25 mins ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.

WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).

Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.

“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.

“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”

Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.

Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.

Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.

Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.

The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.

Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.

The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.

WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.

The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.

Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.

Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad

Forwards

Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);

Backs

Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).

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Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko working through rare muscle injury

Published

25 mins ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.

The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.

He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.

Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.

He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.

Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.

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