The Canadian AIDA and the EU AI Act: Will Sanity Prevail as they more closely align? – Part 1

On June 16, 2022, the Canadian government introduced Bill C- 27, sponsored by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, to update Canada’s federal privacy legal landscape. As earthshaking as that legislation was to the privacy regime in Canada, the impact of Bill C-27 was not limited to privacy regulation. Notably, Bill C-27 also introduced the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (“AIDA”), which aims to introduce regulations in Canada regarding the design, development, and use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems. As we have previously written, while the AIDA is Canada’s first potential law aimed explicitly at regulating AI, it is in many cases influenced by the European Union’s then-proposed Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the “EU AI Act”) introduced on April 21, 2021. Time has since elapsed, and now AIDA - with the November 2023 introduction of new proposed (and substantive) amendments - and the July 2024 publication of the final EU Council-approved EU AI Act, have become increasingly aligned: good news for organizations in the AI industry. There do, however, continue to exist differences between the two items of legislation which can present traps for the unwary.