Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne laughs at a joke from an AI robot as Helene Desmarais, executive chairwoman, of IVADO Labs looks on at the All In artificial intelligence conference on Wednesday in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Companies working with AI in Canada are being presented with a new voluntary code of conduct around how advanced generative artificial intelligence is used and developed in this country.
And while there has already been support from the business community, there are also concerns being raised that it could stifle innovation and the ability to compete with companies based outside of Canada.
Advanced generative artificial intelligence often refers to the types of AI that can produce content. ChatGPT is a popular example, but most systems that generate audio, video, images or text would count as well.
In addition, they agree to human monitoring of AI systems and that developers who create generative AI systems for public use create systems so that anything generated by their system can be detected.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has announced a voluntary code of conduct for generative AI developers in Canada. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
“I think that if you ask people in the street, they want us to take action now to make sure that we have specific measures that companies can take now to build trust in their AI products,” Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne told a conference focusing on AI in Montreal last Wednesday.
Legislation such as Bill C-27, which would update privacy legislation and add rules governing artificial intelligence, is still working its way through Parliament.
Hence, the voluntary code would give another method for the federal government to set out rules for companies to make products people can trust before they even use them, or whether they opt to use them at all.
BlackBerry, Telus among signatories
Canadian tech company BlackBerry, which uses generative AI in cybersecurity products, is an initial signatory to the voluntary code.
If the highway didn’t havedirections and traffic lights, things would be chaos. And I think that’s how I view it … in terms of trying to bring trust.– Charles Eagan, CTO of BlackBerry
According to the company’s chief technology officer, the idea is to make sure there is trust for an AI product before it’s even used, and that’s a bit of a culture shift for some.
“People always deploy mobile phones and computers and networks, and then we try to apply trust after the fact,” Charles Eagan said in an interview with CBC News.
“I think AI, especially generative AI, has fantastic potentials … so if we put some guidelines in place, we can enjoy the benefits and reduce some of the potential pitfalls of this generative AI explosion that we’re all experiencing,” Eagan said.
Eagan pointed out that one advantage he and his company see to the Canadian code of conduct is that it mostly imposes requirements on AI developers, and he feels this means far fewer constraints for consumers who want to purchase or use generative AI tech.
“If the highway didn’t have directions and traffic lights, things would be chaos. And I think that’s how I view it and BlackBerry views it in terms of trying to bring trust to this AI world,” Eagan said.
Code of conduct is a ‘step’
Despite the code being voluntary, lawyer Carole Piovesan said it’s part of a growing ecosystem of regulation and legal measures in Canada.
“This is one step in the process to introducing some more sort of enforceable measures,” said Piovesan, who explained that there are “immediate concerns” as generative AI such as ChatGPT or image generators become more and more popular.
Lawyer Carole Piovesan says the voluntary code is just ‘one step’ toward more mandatory regulation of AI in Canada. (CBC)
According to Piovesan, the federal government is using the voluntary code to complement and bridge between mandatory rules that are still being crafted or passed into law.
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Canada’s moves are also set to match actions in the United States and European Union, in Piovesan’s opinion.
“What Canada is doing in terms of regulating artificial intelligence is trying to be consistent with other jurisdictions like the EU and the U.S. The EU is very close to passing a fairly prescriptive law called the EU Artificial Intelligence Act,” she said.
Worries of ‘stifling’ influence from industry
However, other companies in Canada have expressed concern over the code — despite its current, voluntary nature.
The CEO of Shopify was critical of the government’s initiative on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Tobi Lütke wrote that he won’t support the code of conduct.
“We don’t need more referees in Canada. We need more builders. Let other countries regulate while we take the more courageous path and say ‘come build here.'”
Shopify did not respond to a request from CBC News for comment on Lütke’s post.
Jeff MacPherson is a director and co-founder at XAgency AI; he’s not sure if his company will sign onto the voluntary code of conduct yet. (Robert Krbavac/CBC)
And there are mixed feelings from others in the Canadian industry as well.
“Is it something that’s important to be putting in there, especially when it comes to consumer data, privacy and cybersecurity? Yes,” said Jeff MacPherson, co-founder of XAgency AI.
“But there’s also an aspect of it [having] the ability to put a stifling growth in the industry,” MacPherson told CBC News.
XAgency AI develops private generative AI technologies in fields like business automation and marketing. It hasn’t signed onto the code of conduct yet; MacPherson said the team is waiting to see what happens with it and how the industry evolves with the code in place.
One of his concerns is that different or stricter rules in Canada can make it harder to compete, citing some European tech regulations in other, non-AI sectors that result in companies choosing not to offer services there.
“It can put Canadians to a disadvantage,” he said. “There’s a lot of these big tech companies and when these regulations get put into place … they just don’t allow the technologies to be used within within the country.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
