Canada’s AI minister considering age assurance requirements for chatbots

Canada is considering putting digital age check requirements on large language model (LLM) chatbots.

According to the Canadian Press, the government has faced questions from people with concerns about how young people are using chatbots like ChatGPT. As OpenAI, X, Google and other firms have launched so-called AI chatbots and the tech has become common in the workplace and classroom, persistent concerns about what that means for learning have been joined by worries about whether chatbots contribute to mental health problems, including delusions.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon – who recently spoke at the same AI conference as the California mother who is suing OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT encouraged her son’s suicide – says his department is looking at how age assurance technology could fit into the Canadian government’s legislative strategy on chatbots.

Solomon (a former journalist who was fired when it was discovered he was brokering art deals for Mark Carney, Canada’s current prime minister) has been bullish on AI, pursuing a “wide-ranging regulatory approach.” But as concerns rise, so does urgency, and Solomon could find himself pressured to adopt a more proactive stance.

In addition to the chatbot question, the minister is said to be considering whether to inscribe the right to delete deepfakes into the government’s online safety legislation, Bill S-209, “an Act to restrict young persons’ online access to pornographic material.”

Solomon’s office is conducting a public consultation on online safety laws, and he says  6500 Canadians have already weighed in.

In the latest episode of his podcast, privacy commentator and age verification critic Michael Geist unpacks his recent appearance before Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, wherein he presents his objections to S209, calling it a “modest improvement” on its predecessor, S210, that nonetheless retains its core flaws.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  Canada  |  chatbots  |  children  |  regulation