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Global News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Global News
Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate, racism online: ‘No safety rules'
At first it appears to be a quirky video clip generated by artificial intelligence to make people laugh. In it, a hairy Bigfoot wearing a cowboy hat and a vest emblazoned with the American flag sits behind the wheel of a pickup truck. 'We are going today to the LGBT parade,' the apelike creature says with a laugh. 'You are going to love it.' Things then take a violent and disturbing turn as Bigfoot drives through a crowd of screaming people, some of them holding rainbow flags. The clip posted in June on the AmericanBigfoot TikTok page has garnered more than 360,000 views and hundreds of comments, most of them applauding the video. In recent months similar AI-generated content has flooded social media platforms, openly promoting violence and spreading hate against members of LGBTQ+, Jewish, Muslim and other minority groups. Story continues below advertisement While the origin of most of those videos is unclear, their spread on social media is sparking outrage and concern among experts and advocates who say Canadian regulations cannot keep up with the pace of hateful AI-generated content, nor adequately address the risks it poses to public safety. 0:33 Saskatchewan's premier to track down creators of AI 'deepfakes' of him and Carney Egale Canada, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, says the community is worried about the rise of transphobic and homophobic misinformation content on social media. 'These AI tools are being weaponized to dehumanize and discredit trans and gender diverse people and existing digital safety laws are failing to address the scale and speed of this new threat,' executive director Helen Kennedy said in a statement. Rapidly evolving technology has given bad actors a powerful tool to spread misinformation and hate, with transgender individuals being targeted disproportionately, Kennedy said. Story continues below advertisement The LGBTQ+ community isn't the only target, said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Islamophobic, antisemitic and anti-South Asian content made with generative AI tools is also widely circulating on social media, he said. 'When they create the environment where there's a lot of celebration of violence towards those groups, it does make violence towards those groups happening in person or on the streets more likely,' Balgord warned in a phone interview. 0:40 Study finds ChatGPT responded in dangerous ways more than half the time to users seeking advice Canada's digital safety laws were already lagging behind and advancements in AI have made things even more complicated, he said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We have no safety rules at all when it comes to social media companies, we have no way of holding them accountable whatsoever.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We have no safety rules at all when it comes to social media companies, we have no way of holding them accountable whatsoever." Story continues below advertisement Bills aimed at addressing harmful online content and establishing a regulatory AI framework died when Parliament was prorogued in January, said Andrea Slane, a legal studies professor at Ontario Tech University who has done extensive research on online safety. Slane said the government needs to take another look at online harms legislation and reintroduce the bill 'urgently.' 'I think Canada is in a situation where they really just need to move,' she said. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told The Canadian Press in June that the federal government will take a 'fresh' look at the Online Harms Act but it hasn't decided whether to rewrite or simply reintroduce it. Among other things, the bill aimed to hold social media platforms accountable for reducing exposure to harmful content. A spokesperson for the newly crated Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation said the government is taking the issue of AI-generated hateful content seriously, especially when it targets vulnerable minority groups. 2:04 Alberta girl's football coach accused of making child pornography with AI Sofia Ouslis said existing laws do provide 'important protections,' but admitted they didn't aim to address the threat of generative AI when they were designed. Story continues below advertisement 'There's a real need to understand how AI tools are being used and misused — and how we can strengthen the guardrails,' she said in a statement. 'That work is ongoing.' The work involves reviewing existing frameworks, monitoring court decisions 'and listening closely to both legal and technological experts,' Ouslis said. She added that Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has also committed to making the distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes a criminal offence. 'In this fast-moving space, we believe it's better to get regulation right than to move too quickly and get it wrong,' she said, noting that Ottawa is looking to learn from the European Union and the United Kingdom. Slane said the European Union has been ahead of others in regulating AI and ensuring digital safety, but despite being at the 'forefront,' there is a feeling there that more needs to be done. Experts say regulating content distributed by social media giants is particularly difficult because those companies aren't Canadian. 2:16 'White collar bloodbath': Will AI destroy the entry-level office job? Another complicating factor is the current political climate south of the border, where U.S. tech companies are seeing reduced regulations and restrictions, making them 'more powerful and feeling less responsible,' said Slane. Story continues below advertisement Although generative AI has been around for a few years, there's been a 'breakthrough' in recent months making it easier to produce good quality videos using tools that are mostly available for free or at a very low price, said Peter Lewis, Canada Research Chair in trustworthy artificial intelligence. 'I've got to say it's really accessible to almost anybody with a little bit of technical knowledge and access to the right tools right now,' he said. Lewis, who is also an assistant professor at Ontario Tech University, said that large language models such as ChatGPT have implemented safeguards in an effort to filter out harmful or illegal content. But more needs to be done in the video space to create such guardrails, he said. 'You and I could watch the video and probably be horrified,' he said, adding 'it's not clear necessarily that the AI system has the ability to sort of reflect on what it has created.' 0:42 Viral video of Chinese paraglider likely doctored with AI footage Lewis said that while he isn't a legal expert, he believes existing laws can be used to combat the online glorification of hate and violence in the AmericanBigfoot videos. Story continues below advertisement But he added the rapid development of generative AI and widespread availability of new tools 'does call for new technological solution' and collaboration between governments, consumers, advocates, social platforms and AI app developers to address the problem. 'If these things are being uploaded…we need really robust responsive flagging mechanisms to be able to get these things off the internet as quickly as possible,' he said. Lewis said using AI tools to detect and flag such videos helps, but it won't resolve the issue.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘No safety rules': Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate online
At first it appears to be a quirky video clip generated by artificial intelligence to make people laugh. In it, a hairy Bigfoot wearing a cowboy hat and a vest emblazoned with the American flag sits behind the wheel of a pickup truck. 'We are going today to the LGBT parade,' the apelike creature says with a laugh. 'You are going to love it.' Things then take a violent and disturbing turn as Bigfoot drives through a crowd of screaming people, some of them holding rainbow flags. The clip posted in June on the AmericanBigfoot TikTok page has garnered more than 360,000 views and hundreds of comments, most of them applauding the video. In recent months similar AI-generated content has flooded social media platforms, openly promoting violence and spreading hate against members of LGBTQ+, Jewish, Muslim and other minority groups. While the origin of most of those videos is unclear, their spread on social media is sparking outrage and concern among experts and advocates who say Canadian regulations cannot keep up with the pace of hateful AI-generated content, nor adequately address the risks it poses to public safety. Egale Canada, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, says the community is worried about the rise of transphobic and homophobic misinformation content on social media. 'These AI tools are being weaponized to dehumanize and discredit trans and gender diverse people and existing digital safety laws are failing to address the scale and speed of this new threat,' executive director Helen Kennedy said in a statement. Rapidly evolving technology has given bad actors a powerful tool to spread misinformation and hate, with transgender individuals being targeted disproportionately, Kennedy said. 'From deepfake videos to algorithm-driven amplification of hate, the harms aren't artificial– they're real.' The LGBTQ+ community isn't the only target, said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Islamophobic, antisemitic and anti-South Asian content made with generative AI tools is also widely circulating on social media, he said. 'When they create the environment where there's a lot of celebration of violence towards those groups, it does make violence towards those groups happening in person or on the streets more likely,' Balgord warned in a phone interview. Canada's digital safety laws were already lagging behind and advancements in AI have made things even more complicated, he said. 'We have no safety rules at all when it comes to social media companies, we have no way of holding them accountable whatsoever.' Bills aimed at addressing harmful online content and establishing a regulatory AI framework died when Parliament was prorogued in January, said Andrea Slane, a legal studies professor at Ontario Tech University who has done extensive research on online safety. Slane said the government needs to take another look at online harms legislation and reintroduce the bill 'urgently.' 'I think Canada is in a situation where they really just need to move,' she said. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told The Canadian Press in June that the federal government will take a 'fresh' look at the Online Harms Act but it hasn't decided whether to rewrite or simply reintroduce it. Among other things, the bill aimed to hold social media platforms accountable for reducing exposure to harmful content. A spokesperson for the newly crated Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation said the government is taking the issue of AI-generated hateful content seriously, especially when it targets vulnerable minority groups. Sofia Ouslis said existing laws do provide 'important protections,' but admitted they didn't aim to address the threat of generative AI when they were designed. 'There's a real need to understand how AI tools are being used and misused — and how we can strengthen the guardrails,' she said in a statement. 'That work is ongoing.' The work involves reviewing existing frameworks, monitoring court decisions 'and listening closely to both legal and technological experts,' Ouslis said. She added that Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has also committed to making the distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes a criminal offence. 'In this fast-moving space, we believe it's better to get regulation right than to move too quickly and get it wrong,' she said, noting that Ottawa is looking to learn from the European Union and the United Kingdom. Slane said the European Union has been ahead of others in regulating AI and ensuring digital safety, but despite being at the 'forefront,' there is a feeling there that more needs to be done. Experts say regulating content distributed by social media giants is particularly difficult because those companies aren't Canadian. Another complicating factor is the current political climate south of the border, where U.S. tech companies are seeing reduced regulations and restrictions, making them 'more powerful and feeling less responsible, said Slane. Although generative AI has been around for a few years, there's been a 'breakthrough' in recent months making it easier to produce good quality videos using tools that are mostly available for free or at a very low price, said Peter Lewis, Canada Research Chair in trustworthy artificial intelligence. 'I've got to say it's really accessible to almost anybody with a little bit of technical knowledge and access to the right tools right now,' he said. Lewis, who is also an assistant professor at Ontario Tech University, said that large language models such as ChatGPT have implemented safeguards in an effort to filter out harmful or illegal content. But more needs to be done in the video space to create such guardrails, he said. 'You and I could watch the video and probably be horrified,' he said, adding 'it's not clear necessarily that the AI system has the ability to sort of reflect on what it has created.' Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. Lewis said that while he isn't a legal expert, he believes existing laws can be used to combat the online glorification of hate and violence in the AmericanBigfoot videos. But he added the rapid development of generative AI and widespread availability of new tools 'does call for new technological solution' and collaboration between governments, consumers, advocates, social platforms and AI app developers to address the problem. 'If these things are being uploaded…we need really robust responsive flagging mechanisms to be able to get these things off the internet as quickly as possible,' he said. Lewis said using AI tools to detect and flag such videos helps, but it won't resolve the issue. 'Due to the nature of the way these AI systems work, they're probabilistic, so they don't catch everything.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2025.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
Alberta government appeals injunction of transgender health-care law
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Justice Mickey Amery announce proposed changes to several pieces of democratic process legislation, in Edmonton on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Alberta is appealing a temporary injunction of a law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth. A judge ruled in June that the provincial law raises serious Charter issues that need to be hashed out in an ongoing court challenge of the legislation. Court of King's Bench Justice Allison Kuntz ruled the law is likely to cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth and contrary evidence submitted from the province wasn't overwhelming enough. The government argues the injunction was premature, since the law wasn't fully in effect, and that the judge made a mistake in deciding it would cause irreparable harm. It has said the law was passed to protect children from making potentially irreversible decisions about their bodies. Egale Canada, one of the groups challenging the law, says it respects the province's right to appeal but believes the judge made the right decision. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2025. By Jack Farrell in Edmonton
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Alberta government appeals injunction of transgender health-care law
CALGARY – Alberta is appealing a temporary injunction of a law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth. A judge ruled in June that the provincial law raises serious Charter issues that need to be hashed out in an ongoing court challenge of the legislation. Court of King's Bench Justice Allison Kuntz ruled the law is likely to cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth and contrary evidence submitted from the province wasn't overwhelming enough. The government argues the injunction was premature, since the law wasn't fully in effect, and that the judge made a mistake in deciding it would cause irreparable harm. It has said the law was passed to protect children from making potentially irreversible decisions about their bodies. Egale Canada, one of the groups challenging the law, says it respects the province's right to appeal but believes the judge made the right decision. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2025. — By Jack Farrell in Edmonton
Vancouver Sun
4 days ago
- Health
- Vancouver Sun
Alberta appeals court's injunction against new transgender health-care rules for kids
EDMONTON — The Alberta government has appealed an injunction granted by the courts that prevents the implementation of restrictions around health care for transgender minors in the province. In late June, Justice Allison Kuntz concluded that the new rules, which passed late last year but were not fully in effect, raised serious Charter concerns that needed to be hashed out in court. She granted an injunction until those issues could be settled. 'The evidence shows that there is a benefit to the public in issuing the injunction because it will allow this marginalized group to continue receiving medical care from trusted doctors and a broader team of health professionals thereby avoiding the adverse consequences the Ban will have on them,' Kuntz wrote in her decision. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. On July 25, the provincial government appealed the injunction to the Alberta Court of Appeal, arguing that Kuntz had erred in pausing the restrictions. Last year, the Alberta government passed legislation that sought to ban doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to those under the age of 16 and enacted a total ban on gender-reassignment surgery for minors in the province. In response to the changes, Egale Canada, an LGBTQ advocacy group, along with the Skipping Stone Foundation and five transgender youth, sued the Alberta government and sought a pause on the new rules until the courts could decide on their constitutionality. At the time the injunction was issued, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith vowed to fight on. 'The court had said that they think that there will be irreparable harm if the law goes ahead. I feel the reverse,' Smith said on her radio program, Your Province, Your Premier, the day after Kuntz's decision was issued. Asked about the decision to appeal Kuntz's ruling, Heather Jenkins, a spokesperson for Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery, said in an emailed statement that the legislation was passed to 'protect children and youth when making life-altering and potentially irreversible adult decisions about their bodies. 'Alberta's government will continue to vigorously defend our position in court,' Jenkins wrote. Amery was not made available for an interview. Bennett Jensen, the director of legal at Egale Canada, said the advocacy group respects the right of the government to appeal the decision, but that the province was seeking to interfere with 'the relationship between doctors and patients by seeking to ban medically necessary, evidence-based care for an already marginalized group of youth.' 'We urge the Government to focus on the real challenges facing Alberta's health care system. This is not one of them,' said Jensen in an emailed statement. Last December, Smith had said that using the Notwithstanding Clause — which would allow the law to stand irrespective of what the courts concluded — is also an option before the government, although Smith maintains that the government can win in court and won't pre-emptively use the notwithstanding clause to shield its rules from court scrutiny. The medical treatment of transgender minors has become a major policy debate since the release of the Cass Review the U.K. in April 2024, which disputed some of the evidence surrounding the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors. The Alberta government moved to enact the most stringent restrictions in Canada on health care for transgender minors last fall. 'Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child's future that I, as premier, am not comfortable with permitting in our province,' Smith said last November. The Alberta Medical Association has spoken out against the United Conservative government's restrictions, arguing that the treatment options provided — including the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy — follow the standards of care set out by the Canadian Paediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics. 'Governmental interference by legislating medical therapy options is inappropriate, unethical and represents serious government overreach into the practice of medicine and patient/family rights to autonomy in their health care decisions,' the group's pediatrics section wrote in a statement last November . Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
