What’s new on the blog?
There are interesting things going on Washington State – the home of Microsoft and Amazon. Although Amazon is a reluctant participant, the companies are advocating for rules requiring human supervision whenever facial recognition is being used for automatic decision-making. I speculate on why: Steering facial recognition regulation away from the product
More AI & Machine Learning posts

Interesting Reports and Articles
- AI Now Report 2018, AI Now Institute (December 2018): The AI Now Institute’s report argues that government intervention is necessary to close the accountability gap. A significant focus for the authors is the deployment of facial recognition, which is already amplifying what has become a norm of surveillance.
- Bots at the Gate: A human rights analysis of automated decision-making in Canada’s immigration and refugee system, The Citizen Lab (September 2018): The Citizen Lab, together with the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, argue that the already highly discretionary immigration and refugee system should not be a place for experimentation.
Other Resources
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat‘s guiding principles on the responsible ue of artificial intelligence in government programs and services.
- Declaration on Ethics and Data Protection in Artificial Intelligence, International Conference of Data Protection & Privacy Commissioners (October 23, 2018)