Upcoming confidentiality Bill could include age restrictions on access to AI chatbots protect children Artificial intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said.
“There's a lot of discussion around people asking us whether certain parts of the chatbots need age-specific access,” Solomon told The Canadian Press.
“We're going to look into it.”
His comments come at a time of growing concern about the risks associated with chatbots, such as mental health problems and misconceptions caused by artificial intelligence systems.
In the US, parents of teenagers whose children committed suicide have filed wrongful death lawsuits targeting artificially intelligent chatbots.
Solomon spoke Thursday about his approach to regulating AI at the Govern or Be Governed conference in Montreal. The next day, the conference heard from one of the parents behind the lawsuits.
Last year, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit in Florida against Feature.AI after her 14-year-old son committed suicide. In Montreal, she called on politicians outside the United States to take action.
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“My hope is that by passing a law and enforcing it, holding these companies accountable for fines in their own countries or other things like that, you will put pressure” on tech companies, she said.
“But not only that, but it may also shame us into acting on behalf of our children in our own country.”
In an interview, Solomon said that he discussed one of the suicide cases with OpenAI representatives.
He said it was “very difficult to jump to conclusions about how to handle a situation based on a terrible, tragic incident.”
In California, the parents of a 16-year-old boy filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged their son in his plans to commit suicide.
Solomon said he has not changed his mind about rejecting a broad approach to AI regulation, but he is open to taking action on specific pressing and ongoing issues.
He is also considering including in legislation the power to remove deepfakes, saying he firmly believes Canadians want to see action on deceptive images and videos created by artificial intelligence.
Solomon said he is also open to feedback from both Canadians and a group of experts he has asked to work on updating Canada's artificial intelligence strategy.
“There’s no point in asking for feedback and not being open to it,” he said.
He noted that 6,500 Canadians have spoken out about the federal government's consultations.
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