Victoria will call on peers at the provincial and federal level to dive into policy on deep fakes, or at the least, artificial intelligence in general.
“It’s not about being pro or anti-AI, I think AI is here to stay… it’s about putting up reasonable guardrails,” said Coun. Jeremy Caradonna, who pitched the proposal.
Council agreed during its April 2 committee meeting to send resolutions for consideration at the Union of BC Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to push the provincial and federal governments to work collaboratively with local governments in creating reasonable and enforceable regulations of AI technologies that safeguard democracy and national sovereignty, mitigate social and political divisions, and proactively combat mis- and disinformation.
Computer-generated content with an aura of truthfulness presents unique and immediate challenges, and should be considered a national security threat that presents risks to all levels of government and the principles that uphold democratic society, he said.
Caradonna used AI to make his pitch, with a video crafted using the tech tool.
“Hi, I’m not Jeremy Caradonna. I’m a fabricated visual representation that looks like him and kinda sounds like him,” says a video representation of the city councillor. “If I were generated by a malicious person, I could make this lifelike direction say whatever I want. It’s not hard to imagine how these technologies could spread disinformation and undermine the very principles of representative government. So what will you as decision-makers do about it?”
Noting that not all resolutions make it either on the floor or beyond at either convention, Coun. Chris Coleman made the successful suggestion that copies of the resolution will go the appropriate ministers at the federal and provincial level.
Motions would go to the annual conventions for UBCM – provincial voice for local governments – held Sept. 14 to 18 in Vancouver and its federal counterpart, FCM June 4 to 7 in Edmonton, Alta.
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