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“Write a law that sets out the rules of the Alberta Whiskey Act and what can constitute Alberta Whiskey.”
While the actual request will certainly be more complex, Alberta's minister says the government is considering using artificial intelligence technology to develop future legislation.
Minister Service Alberta and reducing red tape Dale Nally was asked to outline standards for Alberta Whiskey, and he said the challenge provided the right test case for an evolving technology.
“It’s important, but it doesn’t involve the heart or lungs,” Nellie said. “There are no lives that will be lost. And since this is legislation that will lay out the process from grain to water and the methods of distillation, if a mistake is made, we can certainly correct it.”
Nally said he met with Alberta Technology Minister Nate Glubisch and Justice Minister Mickey Emery to make sure everyone was on board with the idea.
“Everyone agreed. Minister Emery has instructed his team to review the draft as soon as it is ready. So if there are any mistakes, there will be a chance to deviate a little from the course, to correct the course,” Nellie said.
“But we're really excited that you can actually use AI to write laws right now.”
It's also exciting to potentially become the first jurisdiction in Canada to use AI in this way, Nally said.
The governments of British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Yukon told CBC News they are not currently using AI to make laws, while others had not confirmed this at the time of publication.
“While we are continually exploring tools that can improve efficiency and clarity, the process remains a human-led legal function to ensure that the entire body of law is accurate, consistent, consistent with the constitution, and aligned with government policy,” British Columbia's Ministry of the Attorney General said in a statement.
Artificial intelligence expert says human contact is still necessary
Jonathan SchaefferProfessor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Alberta and former The Canadian Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence calls the move “innovative and groundbreaking” – as long as proper precautions are taken.
“As we all know, we have seen a lot of news where people blindly used AI to do something and they are full of factual errors and someone usually gets confused by it.” Schaeffer said.
Using AI to craft laws is “a good thing,” Schaeffer said, as long as people take ownership of the process. According to him, people need to understand what the legislation says, what is missing in it and what needs to be corrected.
“They also need to put it in the context of Alberta. The AI was trained on world knowledge, so it has a huge amount of information there,” he said.
“Many of the things that he is trained in that may be included in legislation may simply not be appropriate for our country, our province or the particular culture or mindset of Alberta.”
Proof of concept
In October Nellie was assigned definition of rules for the product to be legally labeled as Alberta whiskey.
The government is currently consulting with industry on what the definition should be. Alberta Whiskey, of course, means different things to different people.
Kentucky bourbon, French champagne or even Mexican tequila are iconic drinks known for their region of origin. Does Alberta whiskey deserve a place on this shelf?
Keenan Pascal, general manager of Edmonton's Hansen Distillery, said he's excited about the prospect of Alberta getting a better representation of its products internationally.
According to Pascal, “Alberta whiskey” has a lot to do with the specific ingredients and environment in the province.
“If we go to Japan and go international, Canadian whiskey will already have a really great profile,” Pascal said.
“Now this Alberta story is just another extension of this amazing whiskey history.”
If AI were to be used to write whiskey regulations, the law would still be subject to approval at all levels to ensure checks and balances are in place, Nally said.
“We can go down that route and say, yeah, that was great, but we wouldn't do it again, right? Or we can say, wow, this is something that needs to be included,” Nellie said.
“This will not get rid of the author of the law, but it will certainly be an addition.”
Nally said he hopes whiskey regulations will be on the legislative agenda this spring.
