Federal government use of AI in hundreds of initiatives revealed by new research database
Canada's federal govern‐ ment has used artificial in‐ telligence in nearly 300 projects and initiatives, new research has found including to help predict the outcome of tax cases, sort temporary visa appli‐ cations and promote diver‐ sity in hiring.
Joanna Redden, an asso‐ ciate professor at Western University in London, Ont., pieced together the database using news reports, docu‐ ments tabled in Parliament and access-to-information re‐ quests.
Of the 303 automated tools in the register as of Wednesday, 95 per cent were used by federal government agencies.
"There needs to be far more public debate about what kinds of systems should be in use, and there needs to be more public information available about how these systems are being used," Redden said in an interview.
She argued the data ex‐ poses a problem with the Liberal government's pro‐ posed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, the first federal bill specifically aimed at AI.
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"That piece of legislation is not going to apply to, for the most part, government uses of AI. So the sheer num‐ ber of applications that we've identified demonstrates what a problem that is."
Bill C-27 would introduce new obligations for "high-im‐ pact" systems, such as the use of AI in employment. That's something the Depart‐ ment of National Defence ex‐ perimented with when it used AI to reduce bias in hir‐ ing decisions, in a program that ended in March 2021.
A spokesperson said the department used one plat‐ form to shortlist candidates to interview, and another to assess an "individual's per‐ sonality, cognitive ability and social acumen" and to match them to profiles. The candi‐ dates provided explicit con‐ sent, and the data informed human decision-making.
Pilot projects become permanent
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said two pilot projects from 2018 to help officers triage tempo‐ rary resident visa applica‐ tions have become perma‐ nent. The department uses "artificial intelligence tools to sort applications and deter‐ mine positive eligibility."
The register also says the department employs AI to re‐ view study permit applica‐ tions by people from other countries, though a spokesperson said it does not use AI for "final decisionmaking."
The department's auto‐ mated systems can't reject an application or recom‐ mend a rejection, the spokesperson said.
Not all experiments be‐ come permanent initiatives.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said it discontin‐ ued a project analyzing publi‐ cly available social media in‐ formation to look for warning signs of suicide, due to fac‐ tors including cost and "methodologies."
Siri for warships
Health Canada, on the other hand, continues to use a social listening tool with a "rudimentary AI component" to search online news for mentions of incidents related to a consumer product, a spokesperson said.
Some of the experiments would be familiar to Canadi‐ ans - the Royal Canadian Navy, for example, tried out a system similar to Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa to verbally relay commands to ships.
A spokesperson said ef‐ forts to integrate voice-acti‐ vated technology in warships continue, but "information security concerns" have to be "considered before such technology could be used."
AI is also put to work for legal research and predic‐ tions.
The Canada Revenue Agency said it uses a system that allows users to input variables related to a case that will "provide an antici‐ pated outcome by using ana‐ lytics to predict how a court would likely rule in a specific scenario, based on relevance and historical court deci‐ sions."
And the Canadian Insti‐ tutes of Health Research uses labour relations deci‐ sions software. It compares a specific situation to previous cases and simulates how dif‐ ferent facts might affect the outcome, the register out‐ lines.
At the Office of the Super‐ intendent of Bankruptcy, AI flags anomalies in estate fil‐ ings.
A spokesperson said the system detects "potential debtor non-compliance based on key attributes found in insolvency filings." Cases flagged by the system are evaluated by analysts.
The register also includes examples of AI being em‐ ployed by the RCMP. A spokesperson confirmed the RCMP has used AI to identify child sexual assault material and to help in rescuing vic‐ tims.
A "type of facial recogni‐ tion technology called face matching" has been used on lawfully obtained internal da‐ ta, the spokesperson said.
CBSA and facial recogni‐ tion
Facial recognition is also used by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). A spokesperson said the agency uses the technology on a voluntary basis to "help authenticate the identities of incoming travellers" though kiosks at some airports.
Redden said there are a lot of reasons to ask ques‐ tions about facial recognition, including examples in the United States where it has led to wrongful arrests.
More broadly, she argued that the government should be keeping better track of its own uses of AI.
The federal government said that in cases where AI use "can have significant im‐ pacts," such as in helping make administrative deci‐ sions, its directive on auto‐ mated decision-making re‐ quires an algorithmic impact assessment.
Those assessments are then published in a public register, the Treasury Board outlined in an email.
The register currently only has 18 entries.
Asked why the number is so much smaller than Red‐ den's total, a spokesperson said the directive and the register are "specifically fo‐ cused on uses of AI with di‐ rect impact on individuals or businesses. Many AI applica‐ tions in the federal govern‐ ment do not fall under this category."
One such example: the tech that is used to keep tabs on nature.
The Canadian Food In‐ spection Agency employs machine learning to track in‐ vasive plants, insects and molluscs, the registry out‐ lines.
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A spokesperson said the agency uses an AI tool to scan a social network crowd‐ sourcing observations of plants and animals. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it uses AI to "detect marine mammals from aerial, drone and satellite imagery."
It took Redden two years, with some assistance, to compile the data based on limited information from a variety of sources.
The information available often doesn't indicate when an AI system was introduced or why, whether it is still in place, what data is being used or if there have been any issues with the system, she said.
"It's very difficult for those on the outside to do this kind of work."
It's unclear what hap‐ pened to some of the pilot projects Redden docu‐ mented.
A January 2023 document tabled in Parliament shows the CBSA said it was develop‐ ing an algorithm for postal Xrays to automatically detect guns and gun parts, while Global Affairs Canada was experimenting with AI-gener‐ ated briefing notes.
Global Affairs didn't re‐ spond to a request for more information, and CBSA de‐ clined to provide an update on those efforts.
"While we can tell you that the CBSA is currently closely following the develop‐ ment of machine learning al‐ gorithms for X-rays to auto‐ matically detect items of in‐ terest, we do not disclose de‐ tails of specific targeting, en‐ forcement or intelligence as it may render them ineffec‐ tive," the agency said.
What the register demon‐ strates, Redden said, is "how widespread use of AI is across government bodies in Canada" - and how little we know about that use.