Safeguards vs. innovation: Ottawa's delicate dance with generative AI

Sam Altman's OpenAI was reportedly aware of potential danger from the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter, yet the company's privacy thresholds prohibited employees from alerting law enforcement of the disturbing content. Instead, nine people were killed.

In the aftermath of the update, federal AI and innovations minister, Evan Solomon called out the powerhouse behind ChatGPT, saying their failure to act was a failure in and of itself. Solomon is set to meet with Altman this week to discuss the incident further.

Host Caryn Ceolin speaks with Ebrahim Bagheri, a professor at the University of Toronto who founded and directed the NSERC CREATE initiative on responsible AI. They discuss what AI companies do when they find troublesome behaviours, the need to respect privacy, and what the government might be able to do to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again.

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