The governance of artificial intelligence in Canada: Findings and opportunities from a review of 84 AI governance initiatives

Abstract

In recent years, the effective governance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems has become a strategic necessity for many nations. Among those nations, Canada is particularly noteworthy: Canada was the first nation to implement a national AI strategy, and more recently, Canada's federal and provincial governments have designed and implemented a wide range of initiatives that attempt to intervene in a variety of potential impacts associated with AI systems. We present a semi-systematic review and synthesis of 84 of those AI governance initiatives. We find that those 84 initiatives predominantly focus on developing programs, policies, and strategic plans to intervene in industry and innovation, technology production and use, AI research, and public administration. Conversely, we find relatively little focus on developing ethics statements or standards, as well as little focus on intervening in social and workforce development services, AI education and training, and digital infrastructure. We suggest three opportunities for researchers and four opportunities for practitioners that, if enacted, would strengthen the overall state of Canadian AI governance. Our study contributes a novel macro-scale synthesis of AI governance initiatives within a national context, as well as practical opportunities for intervening in national AI governance challenges related to evaluation of initiative outcomes, public trust and participation in initiatives, AI impact representation in initiatives, and national unification.