Faculty of Law

Sustainability

Subheadline

New research from U of T's Faculty of Law examines the policy impact of climate concerns and worries

Concern and worry over climate change result in support for renewable energy but don’t necessarily translate into opposition to fossil fuels, according to a study led by Steve Lorteau, doctoral candidate at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law.

Lorteau and researchers in psychology and sociology from the University of British Columbia, Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa and Université de Saint-Boniface set out to examine how emotions affect people’s perceptions of energy issues – and what implications this could have on shaping policies and communicating the impacts of climate change.

Their paper, published in Energy Policy, lays out the results of a meta-analysis on the link between climate concerns and worries and opinions about energy sources, based on data from over 85,000 participants in 36 countries. The studies asked questions such as, “Are you concerned about climate change?” or “Are you worried about climate change?” The studies also asked participants questions about how they view different energy sources, such as support for wind, oil and gas and nuclear.

“At first, we expected that if you are concerned about climate change, you would support renewable energy like wind and solar – and oppose coal, oil and gas to the same degree. But that’s not what we found,” says Lorteau. “We found that people with concerns and worries about climate change supported renewables, but also found these emotional responses only translate into a slight opposition to fossil fuels because people really like the status quo.

“Most people consider, ‘How am I going to gas my car if there are no fossil fuels? How am I going to heat my home?’”

As a result, policymakers need to consider how people view energy and climate policy questions, since emotional aspects will shape how they view change, Lorteau says, noting this point builds on Faculty of Law Professor Brenda Cossman’s earlier work on how climate anxiety can lead people away from the political process.

“In terms of a policy outcome, people don’t want to be inconvenienced,” Lorteau says. “They seem to think that we can solve climate change by just adding more renewables to the mix while keeping the same baseline of fossil fuels, which is not the consensus among climate scientists.”

The analysis also found that climate concerns and worries were not associated with support for – or opposition to – nuclear energy. This, Lorteau says, is due to the fact that support for nuclear energy tends to depend on context and how questions are worded. For example, the questions “Do you support zero-emissions nuclear energy?” and “Would you support a nuclear facility next door to you?” resulted in equal opposition and support.

“Some countries rely heavily on nuclear energy – France being an example – and in those countries, I think [there is] some acceptance that nuclear energy is part of the status quo versus memories of where nuclear energy goes wrong and so those concerns become more salient,” he says.

For his doctoral research, Lorteau is focused on zoning laws in Canada and the U.S. and how people are concerned about losing out on environmental policy change. He says zoning laws preserve and protect the status quo of property owners while not evaluating the potential gains that can happen in society, especially when it comes to environmental initiatives.

He notes the concept of winners and losers of policy decisions is a big theme of University Professor Emeritus Michael Trebilcock’s groundbreaking research, and an influence on his own. "If the policy losers are powerful enough, have a legitimate claim or feel aggrieved, change won’t happen,” Lorteau says.

“How do you bring environmentalism into a space that is so biased against it in big ways? You need to consider emotions, and the potential losers of a policy transition, to understand what their complaints are.”

A champion of human rights and international law, Harold Hongju Koh receives U of T honorary degree

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 20:27:30 +0000

A champion of human rights and international law, Harold Hongju Koh receives U of T honorary degree Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 16:27

Cutline

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Scott Anderson

Topic

Convocation 2024

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Global

Honorary Degree

As a legal scholar, Harold Hongju Koh’s contributions in international and human rights law have helped transform the conduct of international relations.

As a practising lawyer, he has both served under four presidents in the U.S. government – and litigated against it. And as a professor at Yale University, he draws on his knowledge and experience to teach and mentor the next generation of lawyers.

Today, for his deep commitment to the public interest and his vigorous advocacy for the rule of law and human rights, Koh will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the ��߲ݴ�ý.

Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1954 to Korean parents, one of six children, Koh attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government in 1975. He studied at the University of Oxford, then returned to Harvard for law school, completing his degree in 1980.

During the first Reagan administration, he worked as an attorney adviser to the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. (He would later serve in various roles under presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden). In 1985, he joined the faculty at Yale Law School, and almost two decades later became its dean.

In the classroom, Koh is known for his energetic and passionate presence. A journalist who had taken one of his classes described him in a 2009 Forbes profile as “a giant of a teacher,” while a group of Yale law students once called him “one of the brightest legal minds of his generation.”

Dr. J. Robert S. Prichard hoods Harold Hongju Koh (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

As a legal adviser to government, Koh has not been shy to speak his mind. A paper he wrote in 1990 challenged the contention, held by the President George H.W. Bush, that as commander-in-chief, he could lead the U.S. into the Gulf War on his own authority. Koh argued that the U.S. Constitution required the president to consult with Congress beforehand.

Described as a rare scholar-practitioner, Koh has been especially active in human rights. In the early 1990s he led a group of Yale students in a successful suit against the U.S. government to free Haitian refugees who had qualified for political asylum in the U.S. but had been detained indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In a speech in Chicago in 2008, he called the U.S.’s diminished reputation as a global human rights leader “one of the most serious problems we as Americans face today,” citing as the cause a “series of unnecessary, self-inflicted wounds,” such as the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and permitting the torture of detainees. “In just a few short years we seem to have gone from what was a zero-tolerance policy toward torture to what now seems to be a zero-accountability policy,” he said.

As a solution, he recommended that the government recommit to telling the truth and to ending any human rights violated caused or supported by the U.S.. He also urged greater support for the UN and international law, including the International Criminal Court. He concluded by asking audience members to join him in working to “make America America again.”

On the National Public Radio program This I Believe, Koh credited his parents for spurring his interest in human rights, noting that they had grown up in Korea under Japanese rule, forbidden to speak Korean or even use their Korean names. Koh’s father had been a diplomat, and after South Korea’s 1961 military coup, was granted asylum in the U.S., where he took a teaching position at Yale.

“My father savoured freedom like he savoured fresh air,” Koh said. During his own career, Koh traveled to many different countries. “Everywhere I went,” he said, “Haiti, Indonesia, China, Sierre Leone, Kosovo – I saw in the eyes of thousands the same fire for freedom I had first seen in my father’s eyes.”

In his address today at Convocation Hall, which included graduating students from the Faculty of Law and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, he called on them to “understand the difference between a government of laws and a government of individuals,” and urged them to stand for something. “If you find the principle that you will sacrifice for –that you are ready to fight and die for – it will become your calling, and why people remember you.”

Koh has received more than 30 awards for his human rights work. He has been a visiting professor at many universities, including twice at U of T’s Faculty of Law. He has argued frequently before U.S. and international tribunals, including most recently as Counsel for Ukraine against Russia before the International Court of Justice. For his work, Koh has received lifetime achievement awards from Columbia and Duke Law Schools and the ABA International Law Section. The recipient of 18 honorary degrees, he is also the author of nine books and more than 200 articles.

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:18:33 +0000

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 11:18

Cutline

From left to right: David Duvenaud and Roger Grosse have been appointed Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society; David Lie has been appointed director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (supplied images)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Vector Institute

Subheadline

Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, while David Lie becomes the institute’s new director

A leading expert in cybersecurity and two renowned AI safety researchers are set to take on leading roles at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

David Lie, who is known for his seminal work that led to modern trusted execution processor architectures, has been named the new director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI), which aims to explore and address the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

His four-year appointment, which takes effect July 1, coincides with two renowned experts in AI safety – Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud – being named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society for five-year terms.

“I think one of the top priorities is ensuring that SRI and U of T are the primary places in Canada – and perhaps in the world – for AI safety discussion and research,” says Lie, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering.

“My vision is to make us one of the leaders. Canada has already contributed greatly to machine learning and AI through the contributions of previous scholars like [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton, and I think we have a very strong role to play in this important technology going forward.”

The appointments come as inaugural director and chair Gillian Hadfield prepares to conclude her term as chair this month (she stepped down as director at the end of last year). The institute, created following a historic gift in 2019 from business leaders Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, brings together experts from disciplines across U of T’s three campuses to steer AI development to prioritize safety and human welfare.

“We are thrilled to welcome David Lie, Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud to their new roles at the Schwartz Reisman Institute,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Their expertise and leadership will be instrumental in fostering the interdisciplinary collaboration needed for the ��߲ݴ�ý to remain at the forefront of technological innovation that benefits humanity.”

Lie, who has served as a research lead at SRI and holds cross-appointments in the department of computer science and the Faculty of Law, says his decades of research on making computer systems more secure and trustworthy – including contributions to computer architecture, formal verification, techniques using operating systems and networking – have equipped him to tackle the complex issues posed by AI, which will require researchers to anticipate and adapt to the unexpected.

“As AI become more powerful, they may do things – or are already doing things – that we didn’t anticipate or expect,” says Lie. “Bringing cybersecurity skills, thinking and tools into the AI safety discussion will be absolutely critical to solving the problem.”

Lie emphasizes that interdisciplinary collaboration is key to addressing potential AI disruption, noting that it has been pivotal in his own research and other roles.

His current research focuses on securing mobile platforms, cloud computing security and bridging the divide between technology and policy. He is also an associate director at the Data Sciences Institute, a U of T institutional strategic initiative, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a senior fellow at Massey College.

“It’s really one of the things that I love about a place like U of T, because it's big and you have experts in every imaginable field to collaborate with,” he says. “I feel very strongly that we can always accomplish way more together than we can individually. That's true for people, but that's also true for disciplines.”

As incoming Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, Grosse and Duvenaud have vital roles to play in driving SRI’s research agenda and sharing its findings with the world, says Lie.

“One of the main ways universities contribute to society is through research, but we also contribute through discourse; we contribute by translating knowledge and providing that to policymakers, decision-makers and stakeholders,” he says. “I see SRI playing an important part in these roles.”

Both Grosse and Duvenaud are associate professors of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, faculty affiliates at SRI, founding members of the Vector Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chairs – and both are working at San Francisco-based Anthropic, a research company focused on AI safety and alignment.

Grosse, whose research applies our understanding of deep learning to the safety and alignment of AI systems, says academia has an essential role to play in guiding AI development by looking beyond short-term incentives to ask how these technologies can be safely and ethically integrated for the long-term benefit of humanity.

“I'm very excited to be able to understand and mitigate catastrophic risks from AI, to be part of an interdisciplinary community that's especially well positioned to make progress in these issues, and I really appreciate the leadership that donors are showing and supporting this work,” he says.

“I think academia is great for being able to ask the more fundamental questions, to carry out maybe more forward-looking research that might not be directly on a company's critical path, but will contribute to safety efforts at many different organizations.”

Duvenaud’s research, meanwhile, focuses on probabilistic deep learning, artificial general intelligence governance and dangerous capabilities evaluation.

He envisions SRI as a “centre of gravity” where academics, industry members, government leaders and other stakeholders can engage with each other and shape the future of AI technologies.

“The idea is that by having this institute dedicated to this direction, we’ll be able to do things like host visitors and engage with academics from all sorts of disciplines –such as law, economics, and other parts of civil society – so that, ultimately, when policy discussions come up, we’ll be equipped and credible as people who can help governments navigate these decisions,” says Duvenaud, who is cross appointed to the department of statistical sciences.

Sheila McIlraith, an associate director and research lead at SRI, professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, underlines the importance of rallying diverse disciplinary experts from across U of T to address the opportunities and challenges that AI will wield in the coming years.

“AI is no longer the sole purview of computer scientists. It is reshaping the way we live, work, and interact with each other, and it will take experts from a broad range of disciplines to help ensure that AI is developed and deployed for the benefit of humanity, and that Canada adapts swiftly to protect our institutions," says McIlraith, who is an expert in AI safety research herself.

“Threats are already upon us; now is the time to act.”

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:57:17 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/11/2024 - 08:57

Mariam Matti

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

What Now? AI

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Information

Vector Institute

As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, how do we make sure it aligns with our values while minimizing risks?

In the second episode of What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan are joined by ��߲ݴ�ý experts Gillian Hadfield and Roger Grosse as they tackle critical questions surrounding AI safety, regulation and alignment.

Listen to episode two on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode two on YouTube.

Grosse, an associate professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a founding member of the Vector Institute, joined the technical staff on the alignment team at Anthropic, an AI safety and research company based in San Francisco, during a sabbatical last year.

He calls working on AI research and systems while investigating safety a “difficult needle to thread.”

“As you move up the ladder of different AI capabilities, new requirements start kicking in – in terms of keeping the models secure from bad actors and being able to make sure they won’t intentionally carry out harmful plans,” says Grosse, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

Hadfield, a professor of law and strategic management in the Faculty of Law and the inaugural Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, has proposed a national registry for large AI models. She thinks companies should disclose to governments what they’re building, the data being used and the AI model’s capabilities.

“This is a unique moment in human history,” says Hadfield, who holds a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for AI and served as a senior policy adviser to OpenAI from 2018 to 2023. “I think this is the first time that you have such a powerful technology that is being developed almost exclusively within private technology companies, so the public and the academic sector don’t have full visibility into how the technology is working.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at U of T Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. She is also a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Rahul Krishnan is an assistant professor in U of T’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a Canada CIFAR Chair at the Vector Institute, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

How will AI change our world? U of T podcast explores technology’s impact on society

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:17:45 +0000

How will AI change our world? U of T podcast explores technology’s impact on society

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/04/2024 - 11:17

Mariam Matti

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

What Now? AI

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Alumni

CIFAR

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Information

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Geoffrey Hinton

Startups

Vector Institute

Subheadline

In What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan explore – and demystify – artificial intelligence and its impact on society with the help of leading experts

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are posing profound questions about the future – and about us.

Can we ensure safety and alignment within AI systems? How might AI forever transform fields like health care? What ripple effects could AI have on jobs and livelihoods, including in creative industries?

��߲ݴ�ý researchers Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan explore – and demystify – these and other topics by tapping into the knowledge of leading AI experts in What Now? AI, a new U of T podcast that launches this week.

It can be found on Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon.

An associate professor at U of T Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information, Coleman says she hopes the episodes help audiences make sense of new AI tools and systems by cutting through “all the noisiness and controversy that has taken over the headlines.”

“It can be complex and technical, but it’s also social,” says Coleman, a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society.

“What we do with AI makes a difference and more people need to be able to share that knowledge.”

Coleman’s own research centres around technology and society with a focus on data and cities, AI and policy, and generative arts. Inspired by Octavia Butler’s 1980 Xenogenesis trilogy, Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Krishnan, meanwhile, is an assistant professor in U of T’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. A Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute and Canada Research Chair in computational medicine, Krishnan and his team focus on teaching neural networks about causality, building deep learning models that analyze cause and effect from data.

“I’m excited to co-host this podcast to explore and demystify for a broader audience AI through the lens of an accomplished and diverse set of experts,” says Krishnan, who is also a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

What Now? AI picks up where the conversation started last year by Geoffrey Hinton, the cognitive psychologist and University Professor emeritus of computer science who is known as the “Godfather of AI.” After a lifetime spent developing a type of AI known as deep learning, Hinton stepped back from his role at Google to warn about the existential threats of unchecked AI development.

Since then, there have been ongoing advancements in AI research, technological applications and policy development.

Coleman and Krishnan will tackle these and other topics with guests:

Gillian Hadfield, professor of law and strategic management at the Faculty of Law and the Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society.
Roger Grosse, associate professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and founding member of the Vector Institute.
Christine Allen, professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and co-founder and CEO of Intrepid Labs Inc.
Andrew Pinto, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, and associate professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Nick Frosst, co-founder of Cohere, singer in Good Kid band and a U of T computer science and cognitive science alumnus.

“The What Now? AI podcast highlights the incredible researchers at the ��߲ݴ�ý who are exploring the profound implications of this transformative technology,” says Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “These discussions tackle critical questions surrounding AI safety and alignment and its myriad implications across various domains.

“The university is committed to fostering informed discussions that will shape our collective understanding of AI’s role in our society and in our future.”

Coleman says she hopes listeners come away from the podcast feeling more grounded.

Krishnan, for his part, wants the audience to understand “that there is no one group that has ownership” over the technology” and that “the free exchange of ideas and open-source tools encourage people from all disciplines to come see how accessible AI can be, what AI can do for them and how they can advance the discourse in the field.”

Four AI trends to watch in 2024

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:02:40 +0000

Four AI trends to watch in 2024

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:02

Cutline

AI was a hot topic at this week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (photo by Andy Barton/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jovana Jankovic

Daniel Browne

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Information

Global

Graduate Students

Rotman School of Management

Subheadline

“The advancement of AI is moving quickly, and the year ahead holds a lot of promise but also a lot of unanswered questions”

As artificial intelligence continues to develop rapidly, the world is watching with excitement and apprehension – as evidenced by the AI buzz in Davos this week at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting.

��߲ݴ�ý researchers are using AI to advance scientific discovery and improve health-care delivery, exploring how to mitigate potential harms and finding new ways to ensure the technology aligns with human values.

“The advancement of AI is moving quickly, and the year ahead holds a lot of promise but also a lot of unanswered questions,” says Monique Crichlow, executive director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI). “Researchers at SRI and across the university are tackling how to build and regulate AI systems for safer outcomes, as well as the social impacts of these powerful technologies.”

“From health-care delivery to accessible financial and legal services, AI has the potential to benefit society in many ways and tackle inequality around the world. But we have real work to do in 2024 to ensure that happens safely.”

As AI continues to reshape industries and challenge many aspects of society, here are four emerging themes U of T researchers are keeping their eyes on in 2024:

1. AI regulation is on its way

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris applauds as U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence on Oct. 30, 2023 (photo by Brendan Simialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

As a technology with a wide range of potential applications, AI has the potential to impact all aspects of society – and regulators around the world are scrambling to catch up.

Set to pass later this year, the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) is the Canadian government’s first attempt to comprehensively regulate AI. Similar attempts by other governments include the European Union’s AI Act and the Algorithmic Accountability Act in the United States.

But there is still much to be done.

In the coming year, legislators and policymakers in Canada will tackle many questions, including what counts as fair use when it comes to training data and what privacy means in the 21st century. Is it illegal for companies to train AI systems on copyrighted data, as a recent lawsuit from the New York Times alleges? Who owns the rights to AI-generated artworks? Will Canada’s new privacy bill sufficiently protect citizens’ biometric data?

On top of this, AI’s entry into other sectors and industries will increasingly affect and transform how we regulate other products and services. As Gillian Hadfield, a professor in the Faculty of Law and the Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, Policy Researcher Jamie Sandhu and Faculty of Law doctorial candidate Noam Kolt explore in a recent policy brief for CIFAR (formerly the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research), a focus on regulating AI through its harms and risks alone “obscures the bigger picture” of how these systems will transform other industries and society as a whole. For example: are current car safety regulations adequate to account for self-driving vehicles powered by AI?

2. The use of generative AI will continue to stir up controversy

Microsoft Bing Image Creator is displayed on a smartphone (photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

From AI-generated text and pictures to videos and music, use of generative AI has exploded over the past year – and so have questions surrounding issues such as academic integrity, misinformation and the displacement of creative workers.

In the classroom, teachers are seeking to understand how education is evolving in the age of machine learning. Instructors will need to find new ways to embrace these tools – or perhaps opt to reject them altogether – and students will continue to discover new ways to learn alongside these systems.

At the same time, AI systems created more than 15 billion images last year by some counts – more than the entire 150-year history of photography. Online content will increasingly lack human authorship, and some researchers have proposed that by 2026 as much as 90 per cent of internet text could be generated by AI. Risks around disinformation will increase, and new methods to label content as trustworthy will be essential.

Many workers – including writers, translators, illustrators and designers – are worried about job losses. But a tidal wave of machine-generated text could also have negative impacts on AI development. In a recent study, Nicolas Papernot, an assistant professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and an SRI faculty affiliate, and his co-authors found training AI on machine-generated text led to the system becoming less reliable and subject to “model collapse.”

3. Public perception and trust of AI is shifting

A person walks past a temporary AI stall in Davos, Switzerland (photo by Andy Barton/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)

Can we trust AI? Is our data secure?

Emerging research on public trust of AI is shedding light on changing preferences, desires and viewpoints. Peter Loewen – the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, SRI’s associate director and the director of the Munk School’s Policy, Elections & Representation Lab (PEARL) – is developing an index measuring public perceptions of and attitudes towards AI technologies.

Loewen’s team conducted a representative survey of more than 23,000 people across 21 countries, examining attitudes towards regulation, AI development, perceived personal and societal economic impacts, specific emerging technologies such as ChatGPT and the use of AI by government. They plan to release their results soon.

Meanwhile, 2024 is being called “the biggest election year in history,” with more than 50 countries headed to the polls, and experts expect interference and misinformation to hit an all-time high thanks to AI. How will citizens know which information, candidates, and policies to trust?

In response, some researchers are investigating the foundations of trust itself. Beth Coleman, an associate professor at U of T Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information who is an SRI research lead, is leading an interdisciplinary working group on the role of trust in interactions between humans and AI systems, examining how trust is conceptualized, earned and maintained in our interactions with the pivotal technology of our time.

4. AI will increasingly transform labour, markets and industries

A protester in London holds a placard during a rally in Leicester Square (photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Kristina McElheran, an assistant professor in the Rotman School of Management and an SRI researcher, and her collaborators may have recently found a gap between AI buzz in the workplace and businesses who are actually using it – but there remains a real possibility that labour, markets and industries will undergo massive transformation.

U of T researchers who have published books on how AI will transform industry include: Rotman faculty members Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb, whose Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence argues that “old ways of doing things will be upended” as AI predictions improve; and the Faculty of Law’s Benjamin Alarie and Abdi Aidid, who propose in The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better that AI will improve legal services by increasing ease of access and fairness for individuals.

In 2024, institutions – public and private – will be creating more guidelines and rules around how AI systems can or cannot be used in their operations. Disruptors will be challenging the hierarchy of the current marketplace.

The coming year promises to be transformative for AI as it continues to find new applications across society. Experts and citizens must stay alert to the changes AI will bring and continue to advocate that ethical and responsible practices guide the development of this powerful technology.

U of T legal scholar honoured for contributions to legal philosophy, defending rule of law

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 19:45:18 +0000

U of T legal scholar honoured for contributions to legal philosophy, defending rule of law

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 11/23/2023 - 14:45

Cutline

David Dyzenhaus researches the idea of legality in philosophy of law and political thought, constitutionalism, and the modern legal state (photo by Nina Haikara)

Nina Haikara

Topic

Philosophy

SSHRC

Subheadline

University Professor David Dyzenhaus was awarded a Gold Medal by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

David Dyzenhaus’s scholarly interests were shaped during his legal studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, at a time when South Africa’s apartheid regime held total sway.

“I thought there must be more to law than what a government with a total grip on power enacted, as lawyers were able to find legal resources to resist oppression and discrimination despite the fact that there was no written constitution,” says Dyzenhaus, a University Professor at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts & Science's department of philosophy.

“Lawyers… found legal resources despite all of this to resist what was being visited on the majority of South Africans by law. That made administrative law – a seemingly boring subject – very interesting.”

David Dyzenhaus (supplied image)

That feature of legal order led to a career-long fascination with the rule of law and administrative law, the substantive area of law he teaches.

Dyzenhaus’s exceptional contributions to his field were recognized with a Gold Medal from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The medal is the council’s highest honour and is awarded to an individual whose leadership, dedication and originality of thought have inspired students and colleagues.

“David is a renowned scholar and teacher, celebrated by peers and students alike,” said University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law. “It signals a lifetime of academic achievement and extraordinary expertise to receive this very special prize from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.”

A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and corresponding fellow of the British Academy, Dyzenhaus researches the idea of legality in philosophy of law and political thought, constitutionalism, and the modern legal state.

In the department of philosophy, he teaches an introductory course on the philosophy of law as well as undergraduate and graduate courses on political and legal philosophy. He also taught a first-year humanities seminar titled “Trump, the rule of law, and the rise of illiberal democracy”.

“Throughout his career, David has produced a body of work of unusual depth and importance.” said Professor Martin Pickavé, chair of the department of philosophy. “It is wonderful to see his rich research now recognized with one of the country’s most important national awards.”

For Dyzenhaus, who holds the Albert Abel Chair of Law, teaching and research go hand in hand. “I can't do research without talking to students about it, and I can't teach without it engaging directly with my interests,” he said.

He says questions in legal philosophy are often posed in an abstract way: What is law? What is legal order? But Dyzenhaus says many countries have “this thing simply known as ‘law’ and the issue for philosophy of law is to try to find an account of the nature of that thing.

“When it comes to the more difficult question – what is the rule of law – the simple answer is that one has the rule of law when the state acts in accordance with law,” he says. “So if the state enacts law, and then its officials abide by the law they implement, the real question becomes whether if, in so doing, officials do something that's morally worthwhile.”

This spring, Dyzenhaus will take his expertise to the London, U.K.-based Centre for Transnational Legal Studies – a joint venture between U of T’s Faculty of Law and 20 other premier law schools – where he will teach courses on the philosophy of judicial review and the politics of legal space. The latter course, which Dyzenhaus will co-teach with his former student Kirsten Rundle, a professor at Melbourne University’s law school, will examine the dilemmas human rights lawyers face and how these are shaped by the legal spaces in which they operate.

“Such lawyers know that when they're using legal resources to struggle against legalized oppression, they're not going to be able to overturn an oppressive regime and might actually help to legitimate it,” says Dyzenhaus.

His next research project will examine the social basis for law through the lens of social theory and sociology, and explore how individuals participate in society’s constitutional foundation.

"It’s not what people do in their daily lives, but what happens when they engage a lawyer, and through that lawyer, participate in the legal order,” Dyzenhaus said.

Geoffrey Hinton tops Toronto Life's list of most influential people

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 19:42:00 +0000

Geoffrey Hinton tops Toronto Life's list of most influential people

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 11/21/2023 - 14:42

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(photo by Polina Teif)

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Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Alumni

Rotman School of Management

Geoffrey Hinton

St. Michael's Hospital

Toronto Life

U of T Scarborough

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Hinton among several U of T community members highlighted by the magazine

Geoffrey Hinton, a University Professor emeritus of computer science at the ��߲ݴ�ý and the “godfather of AI”, has been ranked the most influential of 2023 by Toronto Life magazine.

After Hinton announced he was leaving his job at Google to warn the world about the existential threat of AI earlier this year, the magazine reports he received more than 1,000 interview requests about the future of the tech he helped create.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Hinton to dinner to discuss what Canada should do about AI and he fielded calls from the White House and 10 Downing Street.

“When he speaks, everyone pays attention,” writes Toronto Life, which also published an in-depth profile of Hinton.

Hinton was one of more than 15 U of T alumni, faculty and community members that made the magazine’s annual list of movers and shakers.

Others include: Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada and former dean of the Rotman School of Management; Ilya Sutskever, an alumnus and co-founder of OpenAI; Gregg Lintern, retiring Toronto chief planner and U of T alumnus; Anita Anand, Treasury Board president and a professor in the Faculty of Law (on leave); James Maskalyk, an emergency doctor at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health, and a faculty member in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine; Raquel Urtasun, CEO of self-driving truck startup Waabi and a professor of computer science; Leigh Chapman, Canada’s chief nursing officer and U of T alumna; Sam Ibrahim, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who is a major supporter of U of T Scarborough; and Carlo Fidani, a businessman, philanthropist and U of T honorary degree-holder who has supported the Mississauga Academy of Medicine at U of T Mississauga and whose Orlando Corporation has made a major investment in the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH).

Members of the U of T community were also featured in the magazine’s list of rising stars, published in the same issue.

Read the full list in Toronto Life

Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: U of T experts review law, ethics and policymaking

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:08:09 +0000

Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: U of T experts review law, ethics and policymaking

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 10/13/2023 - 10:08

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Trudo Lemmens, a professor in U of T’s Faculty of Law, is co-leading a study about the impact of COVID-19 public health measures on disadvantaged communities (photo by Nina Haikara)

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Disability rights, disability justice and disability advocacy have been an increasing focus of Trudo Lemmens’s research – particularly in the wake of COVID-19.

“The recent COVID-19 pandemic revealed again how various measures and policies often uniquely impact on persons with disabilities,” says Lemmens, a ��߲ݴ�ý Faculty of Law professor who holds the Scholl Chair in Health Law and Policy with cross-appointments to U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Joint Centre for Bioethics.

“The voices of disabled persons were largely ignored, and the disability community was not meaningfully involved in the decision-making process.”

Lemmens and co-principal investigator Alison Thompson, an associate professor and a bioethicist at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, as well as former members of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, are leading a global interdisciplinary study on “Rebuilding public trust after COVID-19: Examining public health measures and their impacts on disadvantaged communities.”

Their research, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) New Frontiers in Research Fund for post-pandemic recovery, aims to shed light on the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities during the pandemic and provide insights to rebuild public trust and address health disparities.

“Viruses don’t discriminate, societies do,” says Thompson, who has worked on ethics and policymaking issues both nationally and internationally and was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Bioethics Advisory Table.

“We need to listen to persons living with disabilities, for example, about how their concerns can be better addressed, and how policy processes can be made more inclusive and responsive to the needs of people who are disproportionately harmed because of pre-existing, unjust social conditions.”

Alison Thompson (supplied image)

Their post-pandemic recovery research is born in part out of earlier work by the project's team members, including Deborah Stienstra, a professor of political science and director of the Life Work Well Research Centre at the University of Guelph, and Kevin Bardosh, an applied medical anthropologist at the University of Washington. The work was also informed by policy discussions on clinical triage policies with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, ARCH Disability Rights Centre, and the AODA Alliance (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Alliance).

Stienstra’s report, “Consistently excluded: A disability inclusion analysis of Canada’s COVID-19 policies,” was featured during the Faculty of Law’s ongoing Health Law, Policy & Ethics Seminar Series, which was organized by Lemmens.

Another seminar featured the collaborative research paper – “The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Policy: Why Mandates, Passports, and Segregated Lockdowns May Cause more Harm than Good” – written by Bardosh, Lemmens, and others involved in the new project. A recording of the discussion for "Unintended Consequences" has since received more than 77,000 YouTube views.

“Experts have been recommending development of pandemic policies for a long time – since SARS-CoV [severe acute respiratory syndrome] in Ontario – and still it appears we were unprepared and failed to have equitable policies in place,” Lemmens says.

He adds that other countries introduced different measures and policies during COVID-19 and that we can learn from various approaches. Fernando Aith, a visiting professor of health law at University of São Paulo, is part of the research team that will be exploring Brazil’s approaches.

“Brazil had one of the highest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world. Denialism, mistaken political and administrative decisions, lack of co-ordination between the different Brazilian federative entities, stand out among the problems faced throughout the pandemic, which killed more than 700,000 people in the country,” says Aith.

“A comparative study between Brazil-Canada will allow us to understand the similarities and differences of these countries in confronting the pandemic, and thus consolidate strategic knowledge to prevent future public health emergencies."

Lemmens says public health policy has traditionally emphasized the importance of building, strengthening, and maintaining public trust. To that end, researchers will explore how the implementation or absence of different measures, such as testing strategies, vaccine and mask mandates, clinical triage policies and public health communication have influenced public trust – particularly between already disadvantaged communities, health authorities and other institutions such as universities.

“Our research is built on this premise that trust is key to promote public health in the long-term and to ensure compliance with public health measures,” Lemmens says. “But during the pandemic, measures and policies – often of a rights-restrictive nature – were implemented or withdrawn without discussion with those particularly affected.”

He says it can be argued that the seriousness and urgency of the public health threat may have hindered elaborate consultation, but stresses that the need for inclusion in decision-making is a must.

“In our research, we want to explore what the impact is on how governments, health-care institutions and universities acted during the pandemic, and whether things could have been done differently, particularly from a disability justice perspective. We want to come up with more inclusive public health governance approaches,” he says.

“Could we design an advisory committee structure that involves more stakeholders from the disability community, racialized minorities, Indigenous Peoples and those living in poverty? How would such a different governance structure function during a pandemic?”

By examining the intersection of public health policies and societal factors, the project can help inform future policymaking and public health interventions.

“We shouldn’t too quickly turn the page and move on as if everything went well,” says Lemmens. “We need to learn from our experiences.”

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:56:10 +0000

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/27/2023 - 09:56

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A U of T alumna, Rosalie Abella was the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada, the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada and the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (photo by Polina Teif)

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