Secure AI Is Not Safe AI
If Canada wants safe AI, focusing on AI security won't deliver.
The Canadian government is in the midst of overhauling its national AI Strategy which, in line with its focus on national security issues more broadly, could result in foregrounding AI security as a, or the, dominant AI policy concern. Part of that strategy could include redefining the role of the Canadian AI Safety Institute (CAISI)—the UK government recently did so, redefining their AI Safety Institute as the AI Security Institute. Narrowing oversight efforts to ensure AI is secure instead of safe would place Canadians at increased risk of AI harms; security does relatively little to ensure safety. In the absence of targeted AI regulations aimed at making AI safer, fairer, more accountable, and so on, a narrower policy focus on security would leave the public exposed to existing and emerging AI harms, most of which fall outside the narrower technical purview of security.