On 29 March 2023 an open letter signed by leading tech experts calling for a pause on Giant AI Experiments was released.[1]  It asks governments and the global research community for a minimum 6-month pause in training artificial intelligence systems larger than GPT-4, the next iteration of the system that powers ChatGPT.[2] Signatories include  Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and prominent AI experts and researchers in major AI labs around the world. An author of a leading textbook on AI has signed on. The open letter raises serious concerns about the uncontrolled development and expansion of AI systems that even the creators of the systems cannot “understand, predict, or reliably control.” It emphasizes a need for agreement on safety protocols for the design and development of advanced AI systems to curb what it sees as “the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.”[3] The open letter includes liability for AI-caused harm in a list of several essential policy elements for the governance of AI. 

Through practical, just, and balanced reform, the BCLI Artificial Intelligence and Civil Liability Project is aimed at ensuring that tort remedies will provide effective redress for AI-related harm at a time in wherein AI is increasingly pervasive.  We will issue a consultation paper in the spring of 2023 setting out tentative recommendations for public comment.  Look for the consultation paper later this spring on the project webpage.

[1] See Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter – Future of Life Institute.

[2] ChatGPT is currently powered by GPT-3.5.  GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer.”  While ChatGPT was designed to produce text resembling the writing of humans in response to inputs by humans, GPT-4 is a large general-purpose language model that is able to perform many other functions.

[3] “Emergent capabilities” refers to the phenomenon of “emergence.”  Emergence is unpredictable, original, and unprogrammed behaviour of an AI system or AI-controlled device as it seeks ways of achieving programmed objectives.

The post International Call for Six-Month Pause in Giant AI Experiments Shows Importance and Timeliness of BCLI’s AI and Civil Liability Project first appeared on British Columbia Law Institute.

When it is enacted, the bill’s amendments will provide a host of improvements to BC’s comprehensive legislation on pension division. These improvements include clarifying and modernizing the law on locked-in retirement accounts and life income funds; private annuities; waiving survivor benefits after pension commencement; the powers of a personal representative after the death of a spouse; commuted value: transfer and calculation; disability benefits; and transitions.

BCLI’s Report on Pension Division: A Review of Part 6 of the Family Law Act was published in March 2021 as the culmination of its project on pension division. The project featured over two years’ work by an expert project committee and a broad-based public consultation.

Quotes

“I’m happy to see the introduction of amendments to part 6 of the Family Law Act. BCLI’s Pension Division Review Committee examined part 6 for over two years and recommended changes that would improve how pension division works for separating spouses. The BCLI committee’s recommended changes will enhance BC’s pension-division system for all stakeholders, including boards of trustees of registered pension plans, administrators, pension and family-law lawyers, and individual plan members and spouses.”—Colin Galinski, Chair, BCLI Pension Division Review Project Committee

“BCLI is grateful to see our recommendations become implemented in a bill that will improve the law on pension division. On behalf of BCLI, I would like to thank the Pension Division Project Committee and all who participated in the project’s public consultation for their assistance in developing these reforms to an important area of the law.”—Tejas B. V. Madhur, Chair, British Columbia Law Institute

Quick links

• Bill 17, Family Law Amendment Act, 2023 (first reading)
• Report on Pension Division: A Review of Part 6 of the Family Law Act
• Backgrounder—Summary of the Report on Pension Division: A Review of Part 6 of the Family Law Act (PDF)
• Backgrounder—Pension Division Review: Legislative Fact Sheet (PDF)
• Backgrounder—Quick Facts about the Pension Division Review Project (PDF)
• Backgrounder—Members of the Pension Division Review Project Committee (PDF)
• Pension Division Review Project Webpage
• BC government announcement “Changes to Family Law Act will make it easier for separating couples”

The post BCLI welcomes pension division reforms first appeared on British Columbia Law Institute.