Deepfakes: A Real Threat to a Canadian Future

The act of creating and/or sharing false, misleading, or sensationalized information is far from novel, with instances dating back to as early as the 15^th century^{Footnote 1}^{Footnote 2}. However, due in part to a recent (2016) resurgence in right-wing nationalism, “fake news”, specifically disinformation, has been deemed an issue of concern by both academia and the public^{Footnote 3}.

Disinformation is false information that is deliberately intended to mislead^{Footnote 4}; it is not only inaccurate but intends to deceive and inflict serious harm^{Footnote 5}. The internet and social media facilitate the speed at which present day disinformation can spread, as well as the sweeping magnitude of influence it can have. There is also another advantage that present day disinformation has over traditional forms: the existence of deepfakes.

Deepfakes are media manipulations that are based on advanced artificial intelligence (AI), where images, voices, videos or text are digitally altered or fully generated by AI^{Footnote 6}. This technology can be used to falsely place anyone or anything into a situation in which they did not participate–a conversation, an activity, a location, etc^{Footnote 7}^{Footnote 8}. AI-generated text such as articles, blogs, and reviews, whether truthful or not, can be quickly posted online amongst ‘real’ content^{Footnote 9}.

While deepfake technology is being used to create wholesome, entertaining, and satirical content, governments need to consider the potential harms and/or threats to public safety that this technology poses. As this paper demonstrates, deepfakes warrant the attention, and action of democratic governments and those who value the freedoms and safety of life in a democratic country.

Advancements in AI

The Treasury Board of Canada (TBS) defines AI as information technology that performs tasks that would ordinarily require biological brainpower to accomplish, such as making sense of spoken language, learning behaviours, or solving problems^{Footnote 10}. In simpler terms, AI refers to a computer performing tasks that humans do; for example, speech recognition, decision-making, identifying objects, or translating from one language to another^{Footnote 11}^{Footnote 12}.

In the last few years, AI has advanced significantly in its performance of these so-called “human tasks”. ChatGPT (openai.com) is a prime example of such an advancement^{Footnote 13}. The “GPT” references generative pre-trained transformer, which is the type of large language model on which ChatGPT is built. Unlike a typical chatbots, ChatGPT communicates using “humanlike” dialogue. This means that it generates responses based on the context and tone of the “conversation” it is having with users. ChatGPT also (usually) provides accurate answers to the questions that users pose, since it has been trained on data taken from the internet^{Footnote 14}.

Text-to-image generation is another significant advancement for synthetic media, wherein an AI model creates a unique image based on user-inputted key words^{Footnote 15}. With enough training data, and some additional advancements, it is likely that these models will soon be able to generate images that place real people in visually realistic, but completely fabricated, scenarios.

AI has also advanced the speed at which human tasks are accomplished generally. AI-based program AlphaFold, for example, is assessed to have correctly predicted the structures of over 200 million proteins^{Footnote 16}, greatly advancing research on likelihood and treatment of disease. Without AI, this revelation would have taken human researchers years or decades to achieve^{Footnote 17}.

The Threat to a Canadian Future

Advancements in AI are rapidly improving the realism of deepfakes, as well as making them more difficult to detect and disseminate^{Footnote 18}. Deepfake applications are also becoming more accessible and less technical^{Footnote 19}. Despite this, there appears to be a lack of awareness or knowledge around deepfakes, and an inability to recognize or detect them^{Footnote 20}.

Taking these factors into account, the question of whether deepfakes are an issue of concern for Canadians is raised. In response, one could consider a statement made by Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa:

Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems^{Footnote 21}^{Footnote 22}.

Ultimately, the issue centers on facts. If a democratic society is unable to differentiate fact from fiction, then how is it going to survive? How is Canada going to function if there are different sets of unverifiable facts that different segments of the population believe in? If disinformation is unmanageable and/or unidentifiable, how is Canada going to develop solutions for those real problems? What does this mean for Canadian values and/or the Canadian way of life? Moreover, what happens when deepfakes are used for malicious purposes or with the intent to harm Canadians or their allies?

Harms Caused Using Deepfakes

The harms caused by deepfakes are illustrated by recent examples. In January 2023, a young woman named Blaire, a Twitch streamer and YouTuber better known as ‘QTCinderella’, discovered that a deepfake porn site was using her face/likeness in porn videos, along with the faces of other female Twitch streamers^{Footnote 23}. A fellow Twitch streamer, Brandon Ewing, had paid the website for deepfake porn of Blaire and other female Twitch streamers^{Footnote 24}^{Footnote 25}.

In 2019, Rana Ayyub, an investigative journalist for the Washington Post, spoke out against a political party in India that was protecting the rapist of an eight-year-old Indian girl^{Footnote 26}. In response, a deepfake porn video of Ayyub was produced, which went viral within 48 hours. Following the release of the deepfake, Ayyub received death threats, as well as racist and misogynistic comments. Not surprisingly, for a period of time, Ayyub completely disappeared from social media and stopped reporting^{Footnote 27}.

Such examples of deepfake porn are not uncommon. Over 90 per cent of deepfakes available online are non-consensual pornographic clips of women; as of October 2022 there were over 57 million hits for ‘deepfake porn’ on Google alone^{Footnote 28}. Women are almost always the non-consenting targets or subjects of pornographic deepfake videos, and current legislation offers victims little protection or justice^{Footnote 29}^{Footnote 30}.

Notably, not all harm caused by deepfakes is of the pornographic variety. For example, criminals have repeatedly used deepfakes of Elon Musk in fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaways, resulting in financial losses totaling in the millions of dollars^{Footnote 31}^{Footnote 32}. There have also been instances of scammers using voice clones of senior representatives of banks and other high net worth companies^{Footnote 33}. The scammers would call these offices, posing as CEOs and managers of the respective corporations, and instruct staff to initiate money transfers into their bank accounts^{Footnote 34} ^{Footnote 35}.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has adapted to using virtual platforms to host meetings, interviews, classes, etc^{Footnote 36}. With deepfake technology becoming more and more available and accessible, it is becoming increasingly difficult to verify the true identity of the individual on the screen. In 2022, the FBI noted that criminals are using deepfakes in virtual job interviews for remote jobs where the hiring company would likely only ever engage with the employee on a virtual platform^{Footnote 37}^{Footnote 38}.

Other AI Considerations

It is clear that AI is a powerful tool that can advance solutions and facilitate positive outcomes to problems. However, it can also equip an entity with the power to cause significant damage. Consider the following:

Privacy Violations. AI systems can collect, process, analyze, and store significant volumes of data. If a system is hacked or a security breach occurs, this data (e.g., medical history, biographic data, and/or banking information) can easily be stolen, manipulated, and/or extorted for nefarious purposes^{Footnote 39}^{Footnote 40}^{Footnote 41}.
Social Manipulation. AI can be used to track, analyze, and predict individuals’ online activities, which can make them vulnerable to manipulation or being compelled to engage in activities in which they would not otherwise participate^{Footnote 42}^{Footnote 43}.
Bias. Humans, with their implicit and explicit biases, build, train, and test AI systems. These biases can be reflected in the decisions taken by AI systems, to the detriment of certain groups^{Footnote 44}^{Footnote 45}.

A Path Forward for Governments

Globally, an estimated 5 billion people use or have access to the internet^{Footnote 46}, and Canadians make up 36 million of these users^{Footnote 47}. This means that AI-driven technology and disinformation is accessible to, and can potentially influence, a significant portion of the Canadian and global audience.

Deepfakes and other advanced AI technologies threaten democracy as certain actors seek to capitalize on uncertainty or perpetuate ‘facts’ based on synthetic and/or falsified information. This will be exacerbated further if governments are unable to ‘prove’ that their official content is real and factual.

Deepfakes and synthetic media can also facilitate psychological, reputational, and economic harms^{Footnote 48}^{Footnote 49}. As previously noted, the use or exploitation of AI systems can result in privacy violations, social manipulation and/or harm caused by inherent bias. Governments have a responsibility to intervene in such threats to its citizenry.

Indeed, a number of the foremost experts in AI—Yoshua Bengio, Elon Musk, and Geoffrey Hinton—have all emphasized the dangers that AI presents to the public^{Footnote 50}^{Footnote 51}^{Footnote 52}^{Footnote 53}. Hinton even resigned from his position at Google so that he could speak more freely about these dangers^{Footnote 54}^{Footnote 55}. The level of concern exhibited by these experts, coupled with the potential for harm to citizens, should all but demand that governments address AI and its potential impacts on its citizens.

Canada’s TBS has indicated that the Government of Canada is committed to using AI to support and/or improve some of the services it provides to Canadians in a manner that is compatible with the core principles of administrative law. This is the basis for TBS’ Directive on Automated Decision Making, which aims “to ensure that automated decision systems are deployed in a manner that reduces risks to clients, federal institutions and Canadian society, and leads to more efficient, accurate, consistent and interpretable decisions made pursuant to Canadian law”^{Footnote 56}.

Another positive step forward is the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Digital Citizen Initiative (DCI), “a multi-component strategy that aims to support democracy and social inclusion in Canada by building citizen resilience against online disinformation and building partnerships to support a healthy information ecosystem”. The DCI aims to help both Canadians and the Government of Canada to better understand disinformation, and its impacts in order to determine the appropriate actions to take and inform future policies^{Footnote 57}.

AI capabilities will continue to advance and evolve; the realism of deepfakes/synthetic media is going to improve; and AI-generated content is going to become more prevalent. This means that governmental policies, directives, and initiatives (both present and future) will need to advance and evolve in equal measure alongside these technologies, including capacities to characterize and differentiate malicious AI-based content from prosocial and positive applications.

When it comes to drafting and implementing new policies, procedures and/or legislation, democratic governments are, perhaps by necessity, notoriously slow moving^{Footnote 58}^{Footnote 59}^{Footnote 60}. AI, in stark contrast, advances and evolves rapidly. If governments assess and address AI independently and at their typical speed, their interventions will quickly be rendered irrelevant. Collaboration amongst partner governments, allies, academics, and industry experts is essential to both maintaining the integrity of globally distributed information and addressing the malicious application of evolving AI.

Footnote 1

A brief history of fake news (2022) Center for Information Technology and Society - UC Santa Barbara. Available at: https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/brief-history.

Return to footnote1 referrer

Footnote 2

Soll, J. (2016) The Long and Brutal History of Fake News. Available at: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent-214535/.

Return to footnote2 referrer

Footnote 3

Critical Disinformation Studies: History, Power, and Politics (2021). Available at: https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-76.

Return to footnote3 referrer

Footnote 4

Online disinformation (2023). Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/online-disinformation.html.

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Footnote 5

United Nations (no date) Countering Disinformation | United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/countering-disinformation.

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Footnote 6

Public-Private Analysis Exchange Program (2021) “Increasing Threat of Deepfake Identities,”

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/increasing_threats_of_deepfake_identities_0.pdf, 2021.

Return to footnote6 referrer

Footnote 7

Johnson, D. and Johnson, A. (2023) “What are deepfakes? How fake AI-powered audio and video warps our perception of reality,” Business Insider, 15 June. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-deepfake.

Return to footnote7 referrer

Footnote 8

Sample, I. (2020) “What are deepfakes – and how can you spot them?,” The Guardian, 13 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/13/what-are-deepfakes-and-how-can-you-spot-them.

Return to footnote8 referrer

Footnote 9

Public-Private Analysis Exchange Program (2021) “Increasing Threat of Deepfake Identities,”

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/increasing_threats_of_deepfake_identities_0.pdf, 2021.

Return to footnote9 referrer

Footnote 10

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (2019) Directive on Automated Decision-Making. Available at: https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32745.

Return to footnote10 referrer

Footnote 11

Copeland, B.J. (2023) Artificial intelligence (AI) | Definition, Examples, Types, Applications, Companies, & Facts. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence.

Return to footnote11 referrer

Footnote 12

Burns, E., Laskowski, N. and Tucci, L. (2023) “Artificial intelligence (AI),” Enterprise AI. Available at: https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence.

Return to footnote12 referrer

Footnote 13

Introducing ChatGPT (no date). Available at: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt.

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Footnote 14

Pocock, K. (2023) “What is ChatGPT and what is it used for?,” PC Guide. Available at: https://www.pcguide.com/apps/what-is-chat-gpt/.

Return to footnote14 referrer

Footnote 15

Allyn, B. (2022) “Surreal or too real? Breathtaking AI tool DALL-E takes its images to a bigger stage,” NPR, 20 July. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112331013/dall-e-ai-art-beta-test.

Return to footnote15 referrer

Footnote 16

Database, A.P.S. (no date) AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. Available at: https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/.

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Footnote 17

AlphaFold (no date). Available at: https://www.deepmind.com/research/highlighted-research/alphafold.

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Footnote 18

Bond, S. (2022) “As tech evolves, deepfakes will become even harder to spot,” NPR, 3 July. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/03/1109607618/as-tech-evolves-deepfakes-will-become-even-harder-to-spot.

Return to footnote18 referrer

Footnote 19

Tucker, P. (2021) “Deepfakes Are Getting Better, Easier to Make, and Cheaper,” Defense One. Available at: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/08/deepfakes-are-getting-better-easier-make-and-cheaper/167536/.

Return to footnote19 referrer

Footnote 20

iProov (2022) “Deepfake Statistics & Solutions | Protect Against Deepfakes,” iProov, 26 August. Available at: https://www.iproov.com/blog/deepfakes-statistics-solutions-biometric-protection.

Return to footnote20 referrer

Footnote 21

CBC (2023) “Disinformation, Dictators & Democracy: A discussion with Maria Ressa and Ron Deibert,” 10 May. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/disinformation-democracy-ressa-deibert-1.6837181.

Return to footnote21 referrer

Footnote 22

The Nobel Peace Prize 2021 (10 December). Available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2021/ressa/lecture/.

Return to footnote22 referrer

Footnote 23

Cole, S. (2023) “‘You Feel So Violated’: Streamer QTCinderella Is Speaking Out Against Deepfake Porn Harassment,” Vice News, 13 February. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34pq3/deepfake-qtcinderella-atrioc.

Return to footnote23 referrer

Footnote 24

Farokhmanesh, M. (2023) “The Debate on Deepfake Porn Misses the Point,” WIRED, 1 March. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/deepfakes-twitch-streamers-qtcinderella-atrioc-pokimane/.

Return to footnote24 referrer

Footnote 25

Gan, J. (2023) “Atrioc returns to Twitch six weeks after deepfake controversy, working on DMCA takedowns,” Dexerto, 15 March. Available at: https://www.dexerto.com/twitch/atrioc-returns-to-twitch-six-weeks-after-deepfake-controversy-working-on-dmca-takedowns-2086445/.

Return to footnote25 referrer

Footnote 26

Desk, I.T.W. (2018) “I was vomiting: Journalist Rana Ayyub reveals horrifying account of deepfake porn plot,” India Today, 21 November. Available at: https://www.indiatoday.in/trending-news/story/journalist-rana-ayyub-deepfake-porn-1393423-2018-11-21.

Return to footnote26 referrer

Footnote 27

Hany Farid, Robert Chesney, Danielle Citron (2020). “All’s Clear for Deepfakes? Think Again”. (11 May). Available at: https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/news/2020/alls-clear-deepfakes-think-again.

Return to footnote27 referrer

Footnote 28

Savin, J. (2022) “Deepfake porn is on the rise – and everyday women are the target,” Cosmopolitan, 25 November. Available at: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a41534567/what-are-deepfakes/.

Return to footnote28 referrer

Footnote 29

Dunn, S. (2021) Women, Not Politicians, Are Targeted Most Often by Deepfake Videos. Available at: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/women-not-politicians-are-targeted-most-often-deepfake-videos/.

Return to footnote29 referrer

Footnote 30

Reuters (2021) “Fake Elon Musk giveaway featured in cryptocurrency scams-U.S. FTC,” Reuters, 27 May. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/technology/fake-elon-musk-giveaway-featured-cryptocurrency-scams-us-ftc-2021-05-17/.

Return to footnote30 referrer

Footnote 31

Serrano, J. (2022) “Please Don’t Invest in This Crypto Scam Because Deepfake Elon Musk Told You To,” Gizmodo, 27 May. Available at: https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-deepfake-invest-bitcoin-scam-bitvex-1848982652.

Return to footnote31 referrer

Footnote 32

Jenkinson, G. (2022) “‘Yikes!’ Elon Musk warns users against latest deepfake crypto scam,” Cointelegraph, 26 May. Available at: https://cointelegraph.com/news/yikes-elon-musk-warns-users-against-latest-deepfake-crypto-scam.

Return to footnote32 referrer

Footnote 33

Kohli, A. (2023) “From Scams to Music, AI Voice Cloning Is on the Rise,” Time, 29 April. Available at: https://time.com/6275794/ai-voice-cloning-scams-music/.

Return to footnote33 referrer

Footnote 34

Damiani, J. (2019) “A Voice Deepfake Was Used To Scam A CEO Out Of $243,000,” Forbes, 3 September. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessedamiani/2019/09/03/a-voice-deepfake-was-used-to-scam-a-ceo-out-of-243000/?sh=120b6b6b2241.

Return to footnote34 referrer

Footnote 35

Ropek, L. (2021) “Bank Robbers in the Middle East Reportedly ‘Cloned’ Someone’s Voice to Assist with $35 Million Heist,” Gizmodo, 30 October. Available at: https://gizmodo.com/bank-robbers-in-the-middle-east-reportedly-cloned-someo-1847863805.

Return to footnote35 referrer

Footnote 36

Mileva, G. (2022) “The Ultimate Virtual Events Statistics You Need To Know in 2023,” Influencer Marketing Hub [Preprint]. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/virtual-event-statistics/.

Return to footnote36 referrer

Footnote 37

Thubron, R. (2022) “FBI warns of more criminals using deepfakes in remote interviews for tech jobs,” TechSpot, 29 June. Available at: https://www.techspot.com/news/95119-fbi-warns-more-criminals-using-deepfakes-remote-job.html.

Return to footnote37 referrer

Footnote 38

Muncaster, P. (2022) FBI: Beware Deepfakes Used to Apply for Remote Jobs. Available at: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fbi-beware-deepfakes-remote-jobs/.

Return to footnote38 referrer

Footnote 39

Crews, J. (2023) “AI’s Dark Side: The Potential Misuses of Artificial Intelligence & Why You Should Be Concerned,” www.linkedin.com [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ais-dark-side-potential-misuses-artificial-why-you-should-crews.

Return to footnote39 referrer

Footnote 40

“AI and Privacy: The privacy concerns surrounding AI, its potential impact on personal data,” The Economic Times, 25 April 2023. Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/ai-and-privacy-the-privacy-concerns-surrounding-ai-its-potential-impact-on-personal-data/articleshow/99738234.cms?from=mdr.

Return to footnote40 referrer

Footnote 41

Hern, A. and Milmo, D. (2023) “‘I didn’t give permission’: Do AI’s backers care about data law breaches?,” The Guardian, 10 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/10/i-didnt-give-permission-do-ais-backers-care-about-data-law-breaches.

Return to footnote41 referrer

Footnote 42

Hassan. S. (2023). “How AI Can Be Used to Manipulate People” Psychology Today, April 6 2023. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/freedom-of-mind/202304/how-ai-can-be-used-to-manipulate-people#:~:text=By%20analyzing%20patterns%20in%20people%27s,punishments%20based%20on%20predicted%20behavior.

Return to footnote42 referrer

Footnote 43

Rathenau Instituut (2022). “AI and manipulation on social and digital media”. Available at: https://www.rathenau.nl/en/digitalisering/ai-and-manipulation-social-and-digital-media.

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Footnote 44

Marr, B. (2022) “The Problem With Biased AIs (and How To Make AI Better),” Forbes, 30 September. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/09/30/the-problem-with-biased-ais-and-how-to-make-ai-better/?sh=8035ac547700.

Return to footnote44 referrer

Footnote 45

Larkin, Zoe (2022). “AI Bias - What Is It and How to Avoid It?”. Available at: https://levity.ai/blog/ai-bias-how-to-avoid.

Return to footnote45 referrer

Footnote 46

Ruby, D. (2023) “Internet User Statistics In 2023 — (Global Data & Demographics),” DemandSage [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.demandsage.com/internet-user-statistics/#:~:text=5.07%20billion%20people%20around%20the,the%20internet%20as%20of%202023.

Return to footnote46 referrer

Footnote 47

Statista (2023) Canada: number of internet users 2013-2023. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/243808/number-of-internet-users-in-canada/#:~:text=Canada%3A%20number%20of%20internet%20users%202013%2D2023&text=As%20of%20January%202023%2C%20Canada,percent%20of%20the%20country%27s%20population.

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Footnote 48

Hancock, Jeffrey T. and Jeremy N. Bailenson (2021). “The Social Impact of Deepfakes”. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Volume 24, Number 3, 2021. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2021.29208.jth.

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Footnote 49

Cook, J. (2022). “Deepfake Technology: Assessing Security Risk”. Available at: https://www.american.edu/sis/centers/security-technology/deepfake_technology_assessing_security_risk.cfm#:~:text=Often%2C%20they%20inflict%20psychological%20harm,technology%20to%20conduct%20online%20fraud.

Return to footnote49 referrer

Footnote 50

Pringle, E. (2023) “One of A.I.’s 3 ‘godfathers’ says he has regrets over his life’s work. ‘You could say I feel lost,’” Fortune, 31 May. Available at: https://fortune.com/2023/05/31/godfather-of-ai-yoshua-bengio-feels-lost-regulation-calls/.

Return to footnote50 referrer

Footnote 51

Metz, C. and Schmidt, G. (2023) “Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Risks to Society,’” The New York Times, 29 March. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-musk-risks.html.

Return to footnote51 referrer

Footnote 52

Vallance, B.C. (2023) “Elon Musk among experts urging a halt to AI training,” BBC News, 30 March. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65110030.

Return to footnote52 referrer

Footnote 53

Brown, S. (2023). “Why neural net pioneer Geoffrey Hinton is sounding the alarm on AI “. MIT Sloan. Available at: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/why-neural-net-pioneer-geoffrey-hinton-sounding-alarm-ai#:~:text=AI%20concerns%3A%20Manipulating%20humans%2C%20or%20even%20replacing%20them&text=And%20it%20seems%20very%20hard,own%20subgoals%2C%E2%80%9D%20Hinton%20said.

Return to footnote53 referrer

Footnote 54

Goodyear, S. (2023) “The ‘godfather of AI’ says he’s worried about ‘the end of people,’” CBC, 4 May. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/geoffrey-hinton-artificial-intelligence-advancement-concerns-1.6830857.

Return to footnote54 referrer

Footnote 55

Taylor, J. and Hern, A. (2023) “‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton quits Google and warns over dangers of misinformation,” The Guardian, 30 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/02/geoffrey-hinton-godfather-of-ai-quits-google-warns-dangers-of-machine-learning.

Return to footnote55 referrer

Footnote 56

Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada (2023b). “Directive on Automated Decision-Making”. Available at: https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32592.

Return to footnote56 referrer

Footnote 57

Canadian Heritage (2023). “Digital Citizen Initiative – Online disinformation and other online harms and threats”. Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-disinformation.html.

Return to footnote57 referrer

Footnote 58

Reynolds, C. (2023) “AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio says regulation in Canada is too slow, warns of ‘existential’ threats,” The Globe and Mail, 24 May. Available at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/technology/article-ai-pioneer-yoshua-bengio-says-regulation-in-canada-is-too-slow-warns/.

Return to footnote58 referrer

Footnote 59

Datta, B. (2017) “Can Government Keep Up with Artificial Intelligence?,” NOVA | PBS, 10 August. Available at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/ai-government-policy/.

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Footnote 60

Paas-Lang, C. (2023) “AI is having a moment. What should the government do about it?,” CBC, 24 April. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ai-regulation-mps-canada-1.6818095.

Return to footnote60 referrer

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Deepfakes: A Real Threat to a Canadian Future

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