Over a year ago, the federal government published the Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems.1 Systems referred to include ChatGPT, DALL·E 2 and Midjourney. Although they offer many advantages, such as the ability to draft emails, answer complex questions, produce images or produce realistic videos, they present significant health and safety risks, can propagate bias and carry the potential for serious social impacts, particularly when used by malicious actors.
It is telling that even the pioneers of artificial intelligence are wary of the risks it presents. In early 2023, over 350 AI industry leaders signed a declaration2 urging the international community to make it a priority to mitigate the risk of “extinction” posed by AI, placing it on par with a pandemic or nuclear war. Since this moratorium has not taken place, it is safe to assume that the urgency to act is even greater today, as Joshua Bengio, one of the signatories of this moratorium request, expressed it in an interview with Les Affaires.3
Aware of the importance of a rigorous framework to manage and mitigate these risks, the federal government invited companies to join the Code, which describes:
• measures that should be applied pending the adoption of regulations under the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act;
• as well as the additional measures that should be taken by any company that develops or manages the operations of such a system made widely available for use, i.e. systems with a wider range of potentially harmful or inappropriate use.
The purpose of this proposal is to invite the Board of Directors to decide that the company should adhere to this Code of Conduct.