OTTAWA — Garry Keller recalls the first images passport staff brought before the then-Conservative government for consideration during the last major passport overhaul. “We laughed,” Keller recalls. “It looked like a C-minus effort.” The original concepts featured a Canada goose, a beaver and a maple leaf — ideas the government found uninspired and “lowest-common denominator.” […]

TORONTO — Kids Help Phone says it’s turning to artificial intelligence to help respond to the “enormous need” as more and more young people reach out for mental health help and support. “Young people are changing fast and technology is changing faster,” said Michael Cole, senior vice-president and chief information officer for Kids Help Phone. […]

TORONTO — Artificial intelligence pioneer Yoshua Bengio says he will be redirecting his research to ensure he is working on applications of the technology that are safe for society. “I have been thinking a lot about this and I am going to do what I think is best to go in the right direction,” the […]

LONDON (AP) — Critics accuse the British administration of running “government by WhatsApp” because of the popularity of the messaging app with politicians and officials. So it feels inevitable that a tussle over WhatsApp messages is at the heart of Britain’s official inquiry into how the country handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of messages exchanged […]

A meeting headed by party leader and President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged “dedicated efforts to safeguard political security and improve the security governance of internet data and artificial intelligence,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. Xi, who is China’s head of state, commander of the military and chair of the party’s National Security Commission, […]

LONDON (AP) — The breathtaking development of artificial intelligence has dazzled users by composing music, creating images and writing essays, while also raising fears about its implications. Even European Union officials working on groundbreaking rules to govern the emerging technology were caught off guard by AI’s rapid rise. The 27-nation bloc proposed the Western world’s […]

A federal judge has rejected former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s bid to remain free while he appeals his conviction for crimes he committed during a blood-testing scam he orchestrated with his former boss and lover, Elizabeth Holmes. The 17-page ruling issued late Thursday pushes Balwani, 57, a step closer to having to begin a […]

OTTAWA — Canada’s intelligence service warns that technological innovations adopted by municipalities could be exploited by adversaries such as the Chinese government to harvest sensitive data, target diaspora communities and interfere in elections. A newly released report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service urges policy-makers and the technology industry to consider steps that can be […]

The online counseling service BetterHelp has agreed to return $7.8 million to customers to settle with the Federal Trade Commission for sharing health data it had promised to keep private — including information about mental health challenges — with companies including Facebook and Snapchat. The proposed FTC order announced Thursday also limits how the California-based […]

OTTAWA — Canada’s spy service warns that adversaries will turn to espionage and foreign interference tactics to target the country’s increasingly important artificial-intelligence sector. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says in a newly released analytical brief that countries including China and Russia can be expected to “pursue Canada’s AI through all available vectors” — from state-sponsored investment […]

Canada is under increasing pressure to declare a moratorium on seabed mining just as federal leaders are set to host an international marine conservation summit. More than 700 international scientists and a multitude of environmental organizations are calling on Canada to ban the search for deep-sea minerals in its own waters and show global leadership […]

After the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo launched a cartoon contest to mock Iran’s ruling cleric, a state-backed Iranian cyber unit struck back with a hack-and-leak campaign that was designed to provoke fear with the claimed pilfering of a big subscriber database, Microsoft security researchers say. The FBI blames the same Iranian cyber operators, Emennet […]