IP Osgoode conference focuses on the future of AI data governance in Canada

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Last year, IP Osgoode and its collaborators kicked off Bracing for Impact: The Artificial Intelligence Challenge conference series with a full-day conference on the legal and ethical issues related to artificial intelligence (AI). On March 21, building on the success of the first event, IP Osgoode will host a second conference focused on AI and big data at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St.

Conference poster links to accessible siteThis second conference will explore Canada’s data policy and governance strategies, with a focus on intellectual property and ownership implications, as well as “smart cities” and an examination of big data in the health-care industry.

Featured speakers at the event are: Dave Green, assistant general counsel, Microsoft; Catherine Lacavera, vice-president of litigation, employment and regulatory investigation, Google; and Professor Kang Lee, a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in developmental neuroscience at the University of Toronto.

Lee will deliver the conference keynote lecture, titled “Affective Artificial Intelligence & Law: Opportunities, Applications, and Challenges.” The conference will feature a cohort of  prominent legal scholars, AI experts, government policy-makers and industry leaders from Canada and around the world.

Pina D’Agostino

“With the huge success of last year’s conference, we are looking to keep the momentum going,” said Professor Pina D’Agostino, founder and director of IP Osgoode. “We will explore recent developments in several key areas, including both data policy and governance. During the conference, world leaders with diverse areas of expertise will revisit current legal policies and brainstorm new ideas that can help shape the next decade of AI innovation in Canada. This conference will bridge the gap between different disciplines and fields and drive the conversation forward about how governments should prepare for and react to the impacts that AI will have on Canadian society.”

D’Agostino noted that the Bracing for Impact: The AI Challenge conference series is aligned with the federal and provincial governments’ commitment to fund a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy for research and talent that will cement the country’s position as a world leader in AI. The strategy, originally announced in 2017, will serve to attract and retain top academic talent in Canada, increase the number of post-graduate trainees and researchers studying artificial intelligence, and promote collaboration between Canada’s main centres of expertise in Montreal, Toronto-Waterloo and Edmonton.

The conference is supported by Microsoft Canada, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Naschitz Brandes Amir, York University’s Artificial Intelligence & Society Task Force, and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

To learn more or to register for the conference, visit the Bracing for Impact: The AI Challenge website.