— goodbot

November is AI Month!

Welcome to the GoodBot Gazette’s second issue, covering October and early November 2023. We dedicate this month to AI in response to recent significant AI policy developments at home and around the world. You can read our latest blog on global AI policy and explore our latest reports looking at Canada's Responsible Tech Policy Landscape. You can also check out books and podcasts on AI and sign up for upcoming events and skill-building opportunities. Don't forget to visit our website, join our Substack, and follow us on social media.

GoodBot Reports

Following the launch of its first two reports Intro to Canada’s Responsible Tech Landscape and Existing Terms, Approaches & Frameworks, GoodBot is excited to release the next two reports in our eight-part series. Part #3 Canada's Current Policy Context and Part #4: Proposed Technology-Related Laws in Canada explore what laws Canada has in place to protect Canadians from harms arising from technology and what laws are in consideration to expand those protections. Check out our website and Substack for all reports in the Canadian Responsible Technology Landscape series!

Latest from the goodblog

Global Regulation of AI: The State of Play by Onur Bakiner

What a year in AI policy! Discourse on AI has catapulted beyond the idea that self-regulation is enough to address tech harms. Our latest blog explores the state of play and why it is important for companies and countries to get ready now.

Policy must-reads

This summer, Canada quietly held a consultation on a new Code of Practise for Generative AI

+ Consultations - largely with tech companies - explored whether a draft Code of Conduct included all elements needed - such as safety, fairness, transparency, human oversight, validity and accountability - to safely implement generative AI

+ Following these consultations which almost entirely focused on tech companies, Minister Champagne launched a voluntary Canadian Guardrails for Generative AI – Code of Practice in September 2023, as an interim step toward formal regulation via the AI Data Act

+ The Government also launched a course on opportunities and responsible use of generative AI for federal public servants, along with a general guide for citizens

More recently, the Government opened a round of consultations on copyright policy

+ The purpose of the Copyright in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence consultations is to understand how AI either affects or could potentially affect creative professionals, such as designers and writers, while the government explores updates to copyright laws

+ This is particularly important to 1) artists whose creative works were stolen to train AI models without their knowledge or consent, 2) Generative AI users who could inadvertently be exposed to copyright violations for copyright-protected content generation, and 3) professionals whose careers are or might be detrimentally affected by the rise of Generative AI

+ A University of Chicago lab recently launched a tool called “Nightshade" to help artists fight back against the non-consensual use of original works by "poisoning" data models that collect their works through internet scraping

+ Meanwhile, Google's DeepMind launched the first AI watermarking tool which creates signal to help users distinguish real from synthetic media toward combatting disinformation and misuse of AI-generated content

Quote of the Month

“In the future, we’ll need a humanity defense organization. We have defense organizations within each country. We’ll need to organize internationally a way to protect ourselves against events that could otherwise destroy us.” Yoshua Bengio (Turing Award Winner and one of the godfathers of AI on AI regulation, monitoring and oversight)

Responsible Tech Events

+ Reserve a spot for the Dean's Lecture on Information + Society: Safiya Noble at SFU, event date: November 15th, 2023

+ Reserve a spot for Ethics and Innovation: Building Careers in Responsible AI, with speaker: Katrina Ingram, Founder and CEO of Ethically Aligned AI, event date: November 29th, 2023

+ Registration for the 38th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence is open now, event date: February 20-27, 2024

Responsible Tech Media Club

***what we’re reading***

+ Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence (Indigo)

+ The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma (Amazon)

what we’re listening to

+ No One is Immune to AI Harms with Dr. Joy Buolamwini (Your Undivided Attention podcast, Centre for Humane Technology)

+ Rage Against the Machine (Spark with Nora Young podcast, CBC Listen)

Outstanding Volunteer of the Month

Every month, GoodBot recognizes volunteers who make outstanding contributions to GoodBot’s work and who demonstrate a clear commitment to advancing responsible technology in their work.

Nataliia Zhembrovska

For our second gazette, we are pleased to recognize recruitment professional and volunteer Nataliia Zhembrovska who is the primary person involved in Identifying and engaging potential volunteers who share GoodBot's mission and values. Nataliia has overseen the addition of many new members to GoodBot, across several teams. Through this, Nataliia has ensured a smooth and positive experience from interviewing to joining GoodBot as a volunteer. A well-deserved thanks and congratulations to Nataliia for her outstanding contributions!

On the Lighter Side

+ ChatGPT is getting into comedy

+ Scream your feelings into the void with this website

+ These signs from October should make you laugh

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