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Perspective:
Perspective
04 Aug 2020

Canada’s AI imperative:

Overcoming risks, building trust

AI has the potential to be the catalyst for an era of unprecedented innovation, progress, and prosperity. Yet Canadians still do not truly understand AI, or see how its benefits outweigh the risks. We heard concerns about AI’s impact on privacy, security, bias, consumer protection and more – and Canadians are looking to business and government leaders to provide answers and solutions to those questions. Left unaddressed, this lack of trust could have a serious impact on Canada’s future prosperity.

This report outlines five key perceptions Canadians have about AI and examines the root causes of their distrust. While there’s no question AI presents its fair share of risks, this report highlights that it is possible to develop AI that reflects Canadian values—and promotes prosperity for all.

Read Canada’s AI imperative: Overcoming risks, building trust to learn more.

Canada’s AI imperative:
1 MB PDF

Building and maintaining trust with Canadians

 

To help Canada and its businesses become trusted leaders in AI, we have identified five recommendations that address the concerns of Canadians and build trust in and understanding of AI.

AI needs inclusion, fairness, openness, and safety, values that Canadians hold dear.

Key actions for businesses:

  • Start with values and ethics
  • Creative inclusive teams – and use inclusive data

 Key actions for government:

  • Act as a vocal leader and convener on global standards

Read more >>

Businesses and governments need to work in tandem to build the necessary guardrails to assure Canadians they’re working to prevent, detect, and repair AI breaches.

Key actions for businesses:

  • Proactively build oversight and accountability controls

Key actions for government:

  • Ensure the regulatory environment promotes trust and innovation
  • Create new legal frameworks for algorithmic accountability

Read more >>

As the use of AI in society increases, we will need to start reskilling and preparing the workforce to take up higher-value tasks and jobs in the long term.

Key actions for businesses:

  • Retrain employees if AI is going to change their jobs
  • Explore opportunities to redesign work to take advantage of AI and learning

Key actions for government:

  • Provide support for lifelong learning

Read more >>

Transparency can’t be a one-off activity. It means finding the right balance between information overload and keeping people in the dark.

Key actions for businesses:

  • Clearly articulate why AI is necessary
  • Make privacy an ongoing conversation

Key actions for government:

  • Engage the public and guide the conversation

Read more >>

Canada should lead the way in ensuring its population is AI-fluent and ready to put their understanding to use.

Key actions for businesses:

  • Build non-technical fluency among employees and executives

 Key actions for government:

  • Make AI literacy a priority

Read more >>

Canada’s AI imperative series

 

AI is expected to be one of the leading economic drivers of our time, and Canada has the opportunity to be a global leader. We have the research strength, talent pool, and startups to capitalize, but that’s not enough if we truly want to lead in an AI-driven world and shape what it might look like. True leadership is required—that means taking steps now to establish a world-class AI ecosystem in Canada. Deloitte multi-part series on Canada’s AI Imperative provides a platform on which to engage business and policy leaders about what it will take for our country to claim a leadership position in an AI-driven world and to explore different dimensions of what an AI prosperity strategy could look like.

 

Canada’s AI imperative: Public policy’s critical moment

Find out more

Canada’s AI imperative: Start, scale, succeed

Find out more

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Get in touch

 

At Deloitte, we believe AI has the power to improve Canadian organizations in transformative ways—and we’ll work with you to make your business better. Deloitte’s artificial intelligence practice, AI & Data, leads all others in starting, enabling, accelerating, and sustaining the AI journey.

Talk to us. You’ll see the difference.

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