A recent study out of the University of Toronto explores how the government is using artificial intelligence across the federal public service.<\/p>\n
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Some organizations within the federal government are \u201cheavily dependent\u201d on American companies for their current or planned AI tools, a new study finds.<\/p>\n
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With the government turning to artificial intelligence as a key part of its plan to increase efficiency and maintain services while shedding thousands of jobs, a recent study out of the University of Toronto asked how the government\u2019s messaging around the technology stacked up against performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we are saying those things, are we really putting those things in practice?\u201d asked Dipto Das, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and the paper\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most cases, we found that there is a lot of discrepancies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research digs into the government\u2019s AI register, a public list of about 400 entries describing current or planned uses of the technology across the federal public service.<\/p>\n
For some government organizations, the register only included tools that were developed entirely in-house, while others drew from a mix of internal and external developers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that I was really surprised to see is that there are certain government (organizations)\u2026 entirely dependent on third-party developers, like Microsoft, OpenAI, Google,\u201d Das said.<\/p>\n
For instance, three out of four of the AI systems listed for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) were developed by Microsoft.<\/p>\n
The issue of where an AI tool is developed raises several questions, Das said. How secure is the data? How much control does the government have? And are Canadian taxpayers paying to maintain technological infrastructure on behalf of a third-party company?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular paper is showing our lack of resources and investment in making the Government of Canada technologically sovereign,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are seeing a lot of dependency on third parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study came at a time when the country is looking to lessen its dependence on the U.S.<\/p>\n