AI Armageddon?
Warnings about artificial intelligence ratcheted up this week, ranging from realistic near-term harms to claims that advanced AI could eventually threaten human survival. Some technology leaders and researchers have described a small but serious possibility that highly capable systems could escape human control or be used to cause catastrophic harm. One widely reported warning suggested a possible 10-per-cent chance of AI causing human extinction within a decade.
How real are the threats?
Already real or highly plausible:
- Deepfakes and political misinformation
- Fraud, impersonation, and cyberattacks
- Unsafe or biased automated decisions
- Job disruption and concentration of wealth
- Privacy loss through large-scale data collection
- AI-generated propaganda and harassment
More uncertain but potentially severe:
- AI systems assisting the development of dangerous weapons
- Autonomous cyberattacks
- Systems behaving in ways their creators cannot predict or control
- A small number of corporations controlling critical information and computing power
Doomsday scenarios are difficult to test because the most advanced systems are private, rapidly changing, and not fully understood. The uncertainty is not proof that catastrophe is likely, but the potential scale of harm explains why some experts argue that governments should act before an accident occurs.
What is Canada proposing?
Canada’s national AI strategy includes more than $2 billion in planned measures for AI capacity, literacy, and adoption. It proposes secure public computing, large Canadian data centres, AI education, and stronger protections for privacy, children and online safety. The government also emphasizes reducing dependence on foreign providers and protecting Canadian technological sovereignty.
Carney has warned that AI could be weaponized against Canadians, but Canada’s earlier Artificial Intelligence and Data Act did not become law, leaving a less complete patchwork of rules at the moment.
Why this matters
In many ways, AI is one of Canada’s technological advantages. Canadian researchers helped create and advance the field, and fostering its continued growth could help address some of the economic weaknesses worsened by the trade war with the US. But AI can also weaken democracy by making false content cheap, convincing, and difficult to trace. If citizens cannot tell whether a speech, photograph, or video is authentic, elections (including the BC and Quebec elections, as well as future referendums on secession) and public debate (around Bill C-39, say) become more vulnerable.
The challenge is to strike the right balance. How can Canada become technologically independent and economically prosperous while also avoiding doomsday scenarios and ensuring AI does not undermine our democracy or sovereignty?
Want to know more?
Better understand the future of work in Careers Chapter Two and the threats posed by AI, social media and surveillance capitalism in Canada at a Crossroads Chapter Five.