Lack of artificial intelligence policies puts GN at risk, privacy commissioner says
Graham Steele says AI models are evolving rapidly and employees using them may not understand how they work
Privacy commissioner Graham Steele says there are a lot of unknown risks around the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. (File photo by David Lochead)
Government workers may be unknowingly using artificial intelligence in “unethical ways,” says Nunavut’s commissioner of information and privacy.
“We can be certain that employees of the government of Nunavut are using artificial intelligence tools right now, today,” Graham Steele said Friday, speaking during the second day of Nunavut’s oversight and public accounts committee’s review of the privacy commissioner’s annual report.
The risk, Steele said, is if a GN employee uses AI tools in an ad hoc fashion.
“So another risk that I’ll identify is that because this is so new and has developed so fast, a lot of people are just using it without really understanding how it works,” he said of artificial intelligence technology.
Government employees might not realize they are allowing an AI model access to information that should be kept confidential. Steele said the Government of Nunavut is vulnerable because of a lack of policy around how it deals with artificial intelligence both internally and externally.
“There’s a risk that employees of the Government of Nunavut will use it in wrong ways, that they’ll use it in unethical ways,” he said.
Some AI models are seemingly free — in order to provide a service, a model may require access to private information on the user’s computer or retain confidential information that has been provided to it.
Artificial intelligence is not a bad thing, Steele said, and there is an opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence at the GN. However, there needs to be guidance and policies around its use.
“We desperately need some guidelines about how to use it properly and ethically,” he said.
“To give an example, the government of Ontario has issued policy guidance to the entire public service of Ontario about the ethical use of artificial intelligence, when it should be used, when it should not be used, how it should be used.”
The Nunavut government is actively working on developing a policy around the use of artificial intelligence, said Mark Witzaney, director of access to information and protection of privacy.
“There’s been significant work done to look at this from a policy perspective, from a research perspective,” Witzaney said Friday.
He said there is no timeline, but official guidelines will likely be complete later this year or early next year.
Hope Mark Witzaney and anyone else developing the policy has an open mind towards AI. AI currently isn’t perfect and shouldn’t be solely relied on (users should review and verify the information/sources), and there are some privacy concerns as mentioned in this article (where the information is being shared/stored, and what’s being done with it) but it’s the future, with all companies pushing towards it more and more (including Microsoft, which the GN heavily uses). Hope the goal is to embrace the technology responsibly, rather than resist and restrict, only to get left behind.
Well said, I hope the GN understands that AI is a useful tool to maximize productivity and reduce some of the more tedious office tasks we all do day to day. The policy should embrace AI and provide clear direction on how to use AI safely.
For example, how many people working with the GN know that if you use Copilot through your GN Microsoft 365 account it has Enterprise Data Protection?
The privacy commissioner is right to flag risks with artificial intelligence, but let’s be real: this entire conversation is a perfect storm for incompetence, ignorance, and fear that’s become so ingrained in the GN, it’s practically baked into their Digital DNA.
Yes, AI is evolving fast. No, it’s not going away. Yes, there are real privacy risks if people don’t understand how to use it. But here’s the thing: not all AI is reckless by default. The good stuff doesn’t compromise your privacy. Reputable AI organizations — the ones that are actually worth paying for — don’t use your data to train models unless you explicitly opt in. It’s only the cheap, free, consumer-grade tools that trade your privacy for their “free” service. The serious companies — the ones not chasing the freebie dollar — are serious about data protection.
The real issue isn’t AI.
The real issue is that the GN is chronically cheap, technologically clueless, and utterly allergic politically to any investment that could actually make Nunavut a forward-thinking, functional territory.
For the GN, technology isn’t about innovation or serving Nunavummiut — it’s about control, optics, and cover-your-ass management. Catastrophic institutional laziness masquerading as leadership. That’s why workers are left aimlessly using whatever free, risky tools they can find, instead of being properly trained and properly equipped.
And don’t forget: this is the same government whose mind-boggling, absolutely legendary negligence and dysfunction triggered a ransomware attack that crippled the entire territory and sent Nunavut back to the Stone Age — and then they fumbled the recovery so badly, it became a national embarrassment. Their network was basically banging two rocks together and listening for the echo.
If the GN spent half as much time investing in decent technology and education as it does inventing excuses and stirring up hysterical, moral panic, this conversation wouldn’t even be needed.
Not every AI interaction is a threat. In fact, many of the tools these people are terrified of are the ones that are actively designed to protect sensitive information. Again: the real risk is the GN’s mind-numbing cheapness and culture of willful technological ignorance, not the AI. Those things are the real privacy risks. The future of Nunavut is at risk because of a government that simply refuses to evolve.
The solution isn’t more panic, more fearmongering, and more knee-jerk policies that don’t actually solve anything. What Nunavut needs is real leadership, clear vision, and actual investment in education, tools, and people. You know, things the GN has been avoiding for decades.
Nunavut doesn’t just need AI policies. It needs leaders who actually understand what they’re trying to regulate, who can navigate the nuances of technology without hysterical ignorance. Unfortunately, we’re living through the Age of the AI Idiot, where the real danger isn’t the machines — it’s the human incompetence running the show.
I trust the AI more than the humans.