EU official says the bloc won’t ‘lecture’ Canada on tech, AI regulations

The European Union ’s democracy commissioner won’t “lecture” other countries as the EU pushes ahead on regulating tech platforms and artificial intelligence, the official said on Thursday.

Michael McGrath, the EU commissioner for democracy, justice, the rule of law and consumer protection, is visiting Canada as the Liberal government pursues an AI policy that puts less emphasis on regulation and more on adoption.

Speaking at a conference in Montreal Thursday, he outlined upcoming legislation that will tackle issues such as addictive design, unfair personalization and holding influencers accountable.

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McGrath says the EU, with its 27 member states, is large enough to make a real difference.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has cited the U.S.’s anti-regulation stance as a reason to go easy on regulatory efforts, saying Canada would be wasting its time by going it alone.

McGrath says he wants to find common ground with Canada on digital consumer protection issues and will also talk to MPs about the threats to democracy posed by deepfakes and artificial intelligence.