OpenAI did not respect Canadian privacy laws in developing ChatGPT, probe finds

OTTAWA - OpenAI failed to respect Canadian privacy laws when training its artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT chatbot, federal and provincial watchdogs have found.

The conclusion came Wednesday in a report on a joint investigation by federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and his counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

ChatGPT, released in November 2022, is a popular conversation-style tool that responds to online users' prompts with a wide range of information almost instantly — responses that may or may not be accurate.

The privacy watchdogs found OpenAI's collection of information to train its models was overly broad, resulting in the compilation and use of sensitive personal details.

Associated Press global investigation into government surveillance efforts wins Pulitzer Prize

NEW YORK (AP) — The expansion of government surveillance efforts in China — and the role that U.S. tech firms played in it — was the foundation of investigative stories from The Associated Press that won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for international reporting.

The Pulitzer board recognized AP journalists Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau and Aniruddha Ghosal, along with contributor and independent journalist Yael Grauer, for what it called “an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance” that also included a story about the expansion of license plate surveillance of drivers in United States by the U.S. Border Patrol.

AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace said “this complex and difficult reporting, done by journalists across several continents, embodies the true spirit of the AP: leveraging our global footprint and deep expertise to tell important, impactful stories. It comes at a critical time when the immense and growing power of U.S. tech companies — and their increasingly complex relationship with governments — is in the spotlight and of immense public interest.”

The AP's investigation spanned three years, thousands of pages of documents and numerous interviews. It found that the foundations of the system used by the Chinese government to monitor and police its citizens over recent decades was laid down with the help of American companies. Some of the companies went so far as to use their tech's surveillance capabilities as a selling point.

Solomon says delayed federal AI strategy coming soon, will address impact on jobs

OTTAWA - The federal government's promised new national AI strategy will consider the technology’s impacts on the labour market, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said on Monday.

It’s been six months since the government wrapped up fast-tracked consultations on the strategy. Solomon initially promised it would be tabled by the end of last year.

Solomon said last fall Canada couldn't afford to wait and had to move quickly. When he was asked Monday to explain the delay in introducing the strategy, he said it will be released "very soon."

While Solomon initially signalled an adoption-focused approach, experts say the public conversation around AI has shifted since to focus more on concerns about safety and social impact. Canada has also strengthened relationships with other middle powers that are more pro-regulation than the United States under President Donald Trump.

Trader, brewer, newspaper: With Hudson’s Bay no more, what’s Canada’s oldest company?

When Hudson's Bay closed its department stores for good last year, it left behind more than the wreckage of a once-mighty retail giant.

A lofty title is also up for grabs: Canada's oldest company.

The defunct retailer would have turned 356 this week — the charter forming the U.K.-headquartered fur trading business was dated May 2, 1670 — and its unique role in the history of Canada means extensive records remain that trace its path through the centuries. But, as The Canadian Press discovered over the past year, determining what company now warrants the descriptor is not clear-cut.

Quebec says it will table domestic violence prevention law modelled after Clare’s law

QUÉBEC - The Quebec government says it will table legislation in the coming days that would allow people in relationships to find out if their partner has a history of domestic violence. 

The law would be based on Clare's Law, which already exists in the United Kingdom and several Canadian provinces. 

The law originated in the U.K. and is named after Clare Wood, a woman who was murdered in 2009 by a partner she didn't know had a violent criminal history.

There has been a push in Quebec to adopt a similar law since the murder last year of Gabie Renaud, allegedly by a partner with a long domestic violence history. 

Ottawa will wait for OpenAI info on Tumbler Ridge before regulating: Solomon

OTTAWA - The federal government will weigh information provided by OpenAI on the Tumbler Ridge, B.C. shooting before taking action, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said Thursday.

Solomon said the government must "first see what’s in there before we can regulate."

"Hard cases make bad laws, so you've got to really be careful about how quickly you're responding," he said at an event in Ottawa.

Jesse Van Rootselaar fatally shot eight people in Tumbler Ridge on Feb. 10, including six children, before killing herself.

B.C. invests $1 million in ‘lightning reduction’ technology in bid to reduce fires

VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government is investing up to $1 million on field-testing new technology from a Vancouver company that aims to both predict and prevent lightning that may trigger wildfires.

Skyward Wildfire Technologies says it releases "lighting reduction material" into storms where high ignition risks are identified.

It says the material, which it describes as a "silica or basalt fibre with an aluminum nano-coating" enables electrical charge to "redistribute quietly inside the cloud," instead of building up and creating a cloud-to-ground lightning strike. 

The B.C. Ministry of Jobs and Economic Growth says in a release that the province is delivering funding through Innovate BC and that Skyward also uses technology based on artificial intelligence to predict "areas of elevated lightning-caused wildfire risk."

In the news today: Poilievre speaks to Tory event, social media poll, Sabres fans

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed...

Pierre Poilievre set to speak at conservative conference in Ottawa

Pierre Poilievre is set to give a keynote address today at a conference of Canadian conservatives in Ottawa.

The annual event by the Canada Strong and Free Network also features a fireside chat with former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and will hear from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on Friday.

Health officials track dozens who left hantavirus-stricken ship after 1st fatality

MADRID (AP) — Health authorities across four continents Thursday were tracking down and monitoring passengers who disembarked a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship before its deadly outbreak was detected, and trying to trace others who may have come into contact with them since then.

In Argentina, a team of investigators tasked with determining the origins of the deadly hantavirus on a cruise ship has yet to leave for the southern town they suspect is the source, officials from the country's Health Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, the ship’s operator and Dutch officials said Thursday.

Three passengers have died in the outbreak — a Dutch couple and a German national — and several others are sick. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Most Canadians want social media, AI chatbot ban for kids under 16, poll indicates

OTTAWA - More than two-thirds of Canadians support banning access to social media and AI chatbots for children under 16, a new poll indicates.

Seventy per cent of respondents to the Leger poll said they support age restrictions for social media like Instagram and TikTok, and nearly the same number, 69 per cent, support restricting AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

"Concern from Canadians is pretty high," noted Andrew Enns, Leger's executive vice-president for Central Canada. 

Overall, more than 80 per cent of respondents said they are concerned about the potential negative impact social media and AI chatbots could have on children and teenagers.

TKMS pitches undersea research centre focused on Arctic

OTTAWA - German submarine maker TKMS says it has reached an agreement with General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada on setting up an undersea research centre in Canada.

It's part of TKMS's bid on the federal government’s lucrative contract to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with a fleet of new submarines.

General Dynamics Canada, a subsidiary of the major American defence contractor by the same name, makes sonar and undersea sensor systems.

TKMS says the new research and development centre would be called Arctic Sentinel, and focus on underwater surveillance technology for the Arctic that would have civilian applications, as well as military uses.

Canadian company’s winning innovation a giant leap for drinking water on the moon

MONTREAL - On the moon, access to drinking water could mean the difference between short visits and a permanent human presence, and a Canadian company's award-winning invention has made colonizing Earth's natural satellite more within reach.

“There’s no shortage of challenges to purifying water in space,” Daniel Sax, CEO of Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation, said in a recent interview. ''We were able to develop a system designed to operate in the moon’s extreme conditions.''

His company's invention — called LunaPure — won a competition in April run by the Canadian Space Agency, which had invited companies across the country to design technologies capable of extracting and purifying water on the moon.

Every kilogram sent into space carries extraordinary cost, and the stakes are high: a viable solution for accessible drinking water could drastically cut the need for resupply missions — and help turn the idea of long-term lunar living into reality.

Telecom workers call for restrictions over use of artificial intelligence

MONTREAL - Telecommunications workers are calling for government restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence in the sector, suggesting the technology is being used to monitor workers and disguise the accents of overseas call centre workers.

The Canadian Telecommunications Workers’ Alliance detailed their AI concerns on April 30 in front of the House of Commons' Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, in Ottawa.

The alliance includes, among others, three major unions in the sector: Unifor, the United Steelworkers union, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. They represent 32,000 workers in Canada’s telecommunications industry, including Bell, Rogers, and Telus.

In his opening remarks, Roch Leblanc, Unifor telecommunications sector director, said he was "aware that at least one company was using AI to mask accents of offshore agents.''

Mark Zuckerberg ‘personally authorized’ Meta’s copyright infringement, publishers allege

NEW YORK (AP) — Five publishing houses and author Scott Turow sued Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, alleging the company illegally used millions of copyrighted works to train its AI language system Llama.

The class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, accuses the tech giant of copyright infringement and opens up a new front in the ongoing battle between the book community and developers of AI.

The plaintiffs allege that Zuckerberg and Meta “followed their well-known motto ‘move fast and break things’" by illegally drawing upon a massive trove of books and journal articles for Llama.

“Defendants reproduced and distributed millions of copyrighted works without permission, without providing any compensation to authors or publishers, and with full knowledge that their conduct violated copyright law,” the complaint reads in part. “Zuckerberg himself personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement."