Industry committee  No, I don't think so. To the extent that we want to be a trusted, credible brand, we want to be world-leading and industry-leading in ethical standards. I think there is no negative cost to that; there is a positive benefit. However, what we're talking about here is the standard that Canada is setting in the regulation of AI systems.

Industry committee  Maybe I can chime in here. I think Amanda is being very diplomatic. The AIDA, in a number of respects, goes well beyond the most stringent proposal out there internationally, which is the EU AI Act. It's already the subject of a lot of debate among member states. It doesn't have the support of countries like France, for instance, who want to ensure their own domestic industry is given a chance to flourish.

Industry committee  I'd agree with that. The issue you've raised around deepfakes, both video and audio, would not be addressed by Bill C-27, at least not anytime soon. I know that the government made an announcement—I think today—around the issue of deepfakes and an intent to deal with them. They could be dealt with very easily through an amendment to the Criminal Code or existing legislation.

Industry committee  That's exactly our position as well. As long as there is a globally harmonized approach, we're happy to pay more tax and pay a digital services tax. Just don't make it a one-off.

Industry committee  I don't know the answer to that, Mr. Masse, but we will follow up to get you that information.

Industry committee  No, I don't think so. We would like government, if it's willing, to regulate content issues. Those are sensitive issues. They're constitutionally sensitive issues. There are federal and provincial aspects to that kind of discussion, so if government wants to regulate in those areas, let's have that discussion and let's have it openly.

Industry committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Masse. I don't think we are arguing that there should be no legislative framework. Our position may differ a bit from those of my colleagues here on that. I think the bill, in its original form as its written now, minus some of the amendments that have been proposed by the minister, is actually quite good and quite workable.

Industry committee  Yes. I'm sorry. I want to—

Industry committee  Yes, it does. We pick up signals from what people are interested in, largely. We've applied a lot more transparency and control around that for our users. You can click on a piece of content and go to “Why am I seeing this?”, and you can find out what signals our systems are reading in order to show you that particular piece of content.

Industry committee  No, I don't think self-regulation is the right approach. As someone who has worked in government for a lot of years, I'm a fan of smart regulation. The issue is what kind of regulation is applied and how those issues are debated. The government has indicated that it's in the process of preparing an online harms bill, and we think that's the context in which to debate where that line should be drawn.

Industry committee  I would agree with that. I think it's the definition of “harm”. If you set a threshold of material harm in various areas, you're going to almost certainly capture high-impact use cases. For instance, we've dealt with the delivery of health care services, but Nicole referenced human rights issues, so it adds that target.

Industry committee  —should not be scoped in as high risk, so we raised that with department officials, absolutely. We raised our concerns around remote access. We also raised concerns around the specific obligations for general purpose AI systems. We have raised the issues I raised in my opening statement.

Industry committee  This is a really good question. Look, I understand that Canada wants to act quickly to regulate AI. The original form of the bill, which was a very high-level framework and would have allowed a lot of these issues to be discussed and finalized during the regulation-making process, would have allowed us, allowed Canada, to align with other international jurisdictions.

Industry committee  Yes, and I'm not sure if that's deliberate or not. Really, we think this is better dealt with in the context of the pending online harms legislation. This will determine what Canadians see online, whether it's something that appears in your social media feed or your YouTube recommendations.

Industry committee  No, we were not consulted.