A great morning with @ojenroej.bsky.social at the @lawsocietylso.bsky.social. AI is coming to civil & crim justice. What first principles - Charter Rights, procedural fairness, evidence law - guide us in governing AI through Canadian values? And how do we teach this lens to teens? Law in action!

Should AI influence bail or sentencing decisions? Are AI-powered needs assessments in heath and social sectors reliable? Valid? Accurate? Today the LCO Crim AI Project consults with Legal Aid lawyers at the intersection where AI, evidence law and procedural fairness meet. www.lco-cdo.org/CrimAI

The tech "seems designed to stymie any attempts at auditing, transparency, and accountability," according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The fix is in. No reason to trust city hall. This is an unfortunate thing.

"For the child born this summer in Texas, whose parents receive no documents, whose name never appears in any system, and who grows up asking why she can’t go on field trips, apply for scholarships, or open a bank account, the consequences are not legal theory. They are her life."

Always bothered by the “what are we, China” discussions of surveillance, because Americans have done a bang-up job of creating their own expansive surveillance state, it’s just that lots of people are just beginning to notice.

AI risk assessment and profiling tools may make generalized inferences and discriminatory assumptions that are unreliable, unfair, and can easily ruin lives. Should such tools have a role in Canadian courts? themarkup.org/investigatio...

LCO’s @upsideofdown.bsky.social (Ryan Fritsch) led a discussion yesterday at the Canadian national conference of civilian police oversight agencies about the challenges and opportunities of AI in criminal justice. Get involved in LCOs criminal AI consultations: www.lco-cdo.org/CrimAI

“If the reports about Flock Nova are true, this is precisely the kind of dystopian panopticon we’ve warned about,” EFF’s @mguariglia.bsky.social told Government Technology News.

Canadian civil society and policy experts call on the government to advance a coherent digital policy reform agenda:

An arson attack in Colorado had detectives stumped. The way they solved the case could put everyone at risk. www.wired.com/story/find-m...

404 Media reports on the license plate reader company building a massive surveillance network that could help police more easily track people without a warrant or court order. www.404media.co/lice...

ICYMI: We Robot 2025 has a new permanent online home @windsorlaw.bsky.social, along with 2 exciting updates: 🤖 Video links are now included for each of our panels. Revisit or check out the conversation if you couldn't join us in person. 🤖 And (see next post) 1/3 www.uwindsor.ca/law/3450/wer...

Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features. www.wired.com/story/police...

Here’s a peek at the Intro & Summary to the AI in Criminal Justice series, authored by Nye Thomas and Ryan Fritsch Voici un aperçu de l'Introduction et sommaire de la série sur l’IA dans le système de justice pénale, rédigée par Nye Thomas et Ryan Fritsch www.lco-cdo.org/wp-content/u...

The LCO's Ryan Fritsch (@upsideofdown.bsky.social) was featured in a Law 360 article discussing this week's launch of our AI in Criminal Justice issue papers series! Check out the article here: www.law360.ca/ca/articles/...

An ambitious project made possible by many hands: 7 external authors, 13 advisory members, 7 summer law students, and the always great support staff at the LCO! But we're just getting started! Consultations will run province-wide throughout the spring and summer. Give me a holler and get involved!

Coming tomorrow! The LCO is releasing five papers on the use of AI in the Canadian criminal justice system. These groundbreaking reports were produced in collaboration with police, courts, government, defense counsel, academics, and others. Consultations to follow.

Thnx to local MPP @tomrakocevic.bsky.social who oversaw mock "legislative committee" hearings yesterday of a series of law reform proposals developed by students in the @osgoode.bsky.social course on Law Reform taught by the @lco-cdo.bsky.social.

We Robot (the original We Robot conference, circa 2012) is only two weeks away!!! Register now to save your spot! Join us in person at Windsor Law or join the conversation virtually. See www.werobot2025.ca for all the details. Join us and get a sticker :)

Last Monday 100 CEOs of European digital/tech companies wrote to EC to offer support for a #digital_sovereignty strategy. This the time to move. #EuroStack. 1/

Proud to see govt reflect LCO recs to modernize Ontario consumer leg/reg for ToS contracts like - prohibiting tricks like hiding cancellation buttons - right of consumers to post reviews - upfront disclosure of total potential costs - requiring plain language summaries of changes to terms of service

Big thnx to @windsorlaw.bsky.social & host Marion Overholt for our chat this morning with 180+ first-year Access to Justice students and share insights from the @lco-cdo.bsky.social forthcoming AI in Criminal Justice series! Publication of our papers and consultations begin in about two weeks!

Delighted to be among the panellists to the @lawsocietylso.bsky.social 2025 conference on Technology and Legal Practice. Great speakers and loads of live tech demos. Registration is now open: store.lso.ca/technology-a...

The LCO is pleased to announce the release of the AI Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Backgrounder. This Backgrounder accompanies the LCO/OHRC HRIA and explains the benefits, limitations, stakeholder perspectives, and choices made in the HRIA www.lco-cdo.org/en/our-curre...

Good list of lessons: 1) Echo emerging intl consensus (ex: EU AI Act) 2) Govern government & private sector 3) Align fed & prov efforts by working with law commissions (I'm a bit partisan on that one!) 4) Oversight via independent office of parliament / legislature 5) Address relative risk of R&D

There really is no way to prepare for a day when four distinctly different forms of snow have fallen before I even finished making the breakfast coffee. #toronto #frostedflakes

The Sedona Conference Journal has published "Navigating AI in the Judiciary: New Guidelines for Judges and their Chambers." #LegalTech #AI thesedonaconference.org/sites/defaul...

Indeed! Many thanks to @uwindsor.bsky.social Faculty of Law LTEC program for hosting. Great Qs from the knowledgeable and reform-minded audience.

Calling Windsor residents and UWindsor students and faculty! Catch the engaging LCO Counsel @upsideofdown.bsky.social on February 7 at LTEC LAB. He’ll be giving a talk on “Protecting consumers in Ontario’s digital marketplace”. Register here: uwindsor.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

As my gran used to say "you never know what tomorrow brings." More literally true *right now* than in quite a while. So I'm siting here downloading & archiving any and all US govt reports on tech law & policy I might need to refer to in the future. It's not sexy but I fear it'll prove necessary.

Exclusive: Confident in unproven facial recognition technology, sometimes investigators skip steps; at least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested.

“Middleware” is an interesting new ground for tech governance that can return meaningful choices to individual consumers without a universal hammer. With real choices, consumers can balance a one-sided relationship to tech products and platforms who otherwise hold all the cards and govern on a whim.

Candy Crush, Tinder, MyFitnessPal: See the thousands of apps hijacked to spy on your location A hack of location data company Gravy Analytics has revealed which apps are—knowingly or not—being used to collect your information behind the scenes. 🔗 www.404media.co/candy-crush-...

Check out @profbenperrin.bsky.social Canadian casebook on AI & criminal law, released today. Great primer and reference - and kind of Prof Perrin to reference a lot of the AI work we've been doing at the @lco-cdo.bsky.social allard.ubc.ca/about-us/eve...

Tonight I close the loop on a 20 year story arc. Law student me went to school looking to do law reform but mostly found doctrine. I had to invent my own courses! Tonight I'm pleased to say I'm still doing it - only officially at Osgoode Hall teaching their first course dedicated to Law Reform.

Shout out to Lina Khan's FTC and the amazing work they have been doing, summarized in this post. This what a functioning regulatory body looks like & what we should continue to hold as expectations even in the face of pressure to normalize anything less. www.ftc.gov/policy/advoc...

On Monday, @cendemtech.bsky.social submitted comments to the OMB on federal agencies’ use of commercially available information (CAI). cdt.org/insights/cdt...

1/2 LCO reports how Ontario legislation fails to protect digital consumer transactions in important ways: apps & sites can use tricks to induce unwanted purchases; word salad notices dont tell you the real risks; and theres no access to justice for most transactions. www.lco-cdo.org/digitalmarke...

Just got this promo shot from a clothes shop in Toronto. Apparently the look for men this season is "Frodo Baggins at the corner of 8 Mile and 221b Baker St."

In today’s episode of Don’t Be That Guy, judges who are all like “don’t fetter my discretion!” somehow cavalierly slide into using ChatGPT to happily fetter their own discretion. To, you know, reject an appeal of an 11 year prison sentence…

The EU’s #DigitalServicesAct requires groundbreaking transparency from digital platforms. KGI has submitted comments to the Commission on how to ensure broad access to social media data. Learn more here: bit.ly/3Zxkbt7

Bravo Simon! This is important and precedential work I recommend to all who study law in Canada on how to use AI to more comprehensively scan case law to uncover patterns and issues in administrative and judicial decision making.

New from 404 Media: a location data firm is offering to help cops track targets via their doctor visits. Cops fill out form about their target, including doctor's address. Fog Data Science will then map out person's movements using massive bank of data www.404media.co/location-dat...

EU cybersecurity rules for smart devices enter into force

let's goooo pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/bl...

Whew, what a week. Banged out 12K words for a chapter comparing AI regulation in Canada, US & EU; then wrapped up 40K words on Canadian police use of AI, with a look at warrants, Crown advice function, and Charter. I'm just gonna put this keyboard down now. See you all on Monday. 🤪

New from 404 Media: this is huge. FTC to ban Venntel from selling sensitive location data. Sensitive locations include health facilities (think abortion); places of worship; schools; refugee shelters. Crucial because Venntel sold its data to ICE, CBP etc www.404media.co/ftc-bans-loc...