Canada · 19 d ago
Ottawa won't say whether its course on AI was written by AI
Federal funding for three AI courses
13 million dollars
In September, Ottawa gave $13 million to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) for three online courses on AI. It says confidentiality provisions prevent it from telling students whether the content was AI-generated.
“Canadians must be able to determine whether they are interacting with AI systems and whether they are dealing with content generated or modified by AI.”
— Evan Solomon, federal minister, on Jul 23
What we know
- Ottawa paid $13 million for three courses
- Staff may have used generative AI
Not yet
- How much of the content AI produced
- Why students are not told
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada concedes the institute's staff may have used generative AI. The institute says the work had rigorous human supervision, but would not say why its use of AI is not disclosed.
Why it matters
The Government of Canada's own guide for public servants says AI-generated content should be declared. A communications professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal calls the omission very serious for a course.
