AI governance needs to be democratic. Canada has stated that it wants to hear from a wide range of Canadians for its consultation process on AI governance, offering constituents a few options to provide insights, but there is much more Canada (and other democracies) could do to meaningfully inform, involve and collaborate with their citizens on AI governance.
Through comparing Canada’s approach to AI governance consultations in Australia, Colombia and the United States, Susan Ariel Aaronson and Michael Moreno provide the following recommendations to improve democracies’ AI governance practices to better involve their constituents:
- Build a base of common knowledge among citizens about AI to support informed participation.
- Recognize public participation in AI governance as both a policy problem and a marketing problem. Enlist the help of a wide range of civil society groups on outreach.
- Establish an “always-on” portal where citizens can ask questions and provide feedback about AI policies.
- Designate an ombudsperson at every government department to respond to public concerns over policies and practice related to AI. The ombudsperson should investigate citizen complaints and resolve them.
