The Alberta government is about to take the next logical step in artificial intelligence – using it to develop proposed legislation.
Alberta Services Minister Dale Nally says the plan is to use AI to develop and implement the Alberta Whiskey Act when the house is delivered next spring.
“AI is a tool that is being used across many sectors in Canada,” Nally said in a statement Tuesday.
“In sectors such as healthcare, this could be a useful tool to assist healthcare professionals in diagnosis, helping them identify abnormalities during patient screening procedures.”
Nally said the AI-generated bill would then be reviewed to ensure all checks and balances were in place.
“This will make Alberta the first jurisdiction in Canada to use AI for this purpose.”
The Alberta government says on its website that the legislation will set standards for the production of a distilled spirit called Alberta Whiskey.
“The legislation will also support the long-term growth and competitiveness of Alberta's whiskey sector by providing clear standards for product labeling, aging, geography and marketing, while enabling innovation and access to international markets,” it said.
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The Canadian Press reached out to all Canadian provinces and territories to confirm whether they were using AI to craft laws.
Representatives from all regions except Ontario responded by saying their jurisdictions had never used AI to make laws.
“Before legislation reaches the stage of being ready for development, the policy work that supports it is the product of often many years of research and analysis and is typically based on stakeholder engagement and/or consultation with Yukon First Nations,” the Yukon government added.
“We are not aware of any instances where Canadian governments have introduced any legislation written by AI.”
Randy Goebel, a computer science professor and AI researcher at the University of Alberta, says there are several pros and cons to lawmakers using AI.
“People who make laws have been wrong for centuries, and making laws is tedious and hard work,” Goebel said in an interview.
“So, of course, you should use tools that will help speed up the development of legislation. Speeding up the creation of accurate legislation is a great goal. … Lawmakers who do not use AI will be replaced by those who use AI.”
But Goebel said his research, which included using AI to design mock legislation, has so far shown the technology to be flawed.
“It turns out changes are needed,” he said.
He said the faults were related to the technology's natural language processing system.
Goebel says the system is a subfield of artificial intelligence and focuses on how computers translate machine language into human or natural language.
“Forty percent of errors occur simply because saying something in a natural language (like English) is open to interpretation, and that is much broader and richer than a programming language,” he said.
“That’s why there must be processes in place to test whether a law makes sense or not before it becomes law.”
The Alberta government isn't the only pioneer in artificial intelligence. In September, Albania appointed an artificial intelligence minister to fight corruption and promote transparency and innovation.
The minister, named Diella, was created earlier this year in collaboration with Microsoft as a virtual assistant on the government services platform Electronic Albania. This helped users navigate the site and access approximately one million digital queries and documents.
In May, the United Arab Emirates created a government agency called the Regulatory Intelligence Authority, which will use AI to develop, review and update its laws.
— with files from The Associated Press
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