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“Write legislation that lays out the rules for an ‘Alberta Whisky Act’ and what might constitute an Alberta whisky.”
While the actual query would surely be more complex than that, an Alberta minister says the government is considering using AI technology to draft a forthcoming piece of legislation.
Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Dale Nally has been asked to lay out the standards for “Alberta whisky,” and he said the task represents the right sort of test case for the burgeoning technology.
“It’s important, but there’s no hearts or lungs involved,” Nally said. “There’s no lives that are going to be lost. And because it is legislation that’s going to be laying out a process from the grains to the water and how things are distilled, if a mistake is made, we can course correct.”
Nally said he met with Alberta Technology Minister Nate Glubish and Justice Minister Mickey Amery to ensure everyone was aligned with the idea.
“Everybody agreed. Minister Amery’s going to have his team look it over once it’s done. So if there’s any mistakes, there’ll be a chance for a bit of an off-ramp, course-correct,” Nally said.
“But we’re kind of excited that you can actually use AI to write legislation right now.”
It’s also exciting to potentially be the first jurisdiction in Canada to use AI in such a way, Nally said.
The governments of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Yukon told CBC News they’re not presently using AI to draft legislation, while others didn’t confirm by publication time.
“While we continually explore tools that can improve efficiency and clarity, the process remains a human-led legal function to ensure accuracy, consistency across the statute book, constitutional compliance, and alignment with government policy,” reads a statement from the B.C. Ministry of Attorney General.
AI expert says human touch still required
Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Alberta and the former Canada Research Chair in artificial intelligence, sees the move as “innovative and groundbreaking” — as long as the proper safeguards are in place.
“As we all know, we’ve seen lots of news stories where people have blindly used AI to do something, and it’s full of factual mistakes, and somebody usually gets embarrassed by it,” Schaeffer said.
Using AI to draft legislation is “fine,” Schaeffer said, as long as humans take responsibility along the process. Humans must understand what the legislation is saying, what it’s missing and what needs to be fixed, he said.
“They also have to put it in the Alberta context. The AI has been trained on the world’s knowledge, so it has a vast amount of information there,” he said.
“Many of the things it’s trained on and might include in legislation just might not be right for our country, our province, or the sensibilities of the Alberta culture or mindset.”
Proof of concept
In October, Nally was tasked with defining the rules for a product to be legally labelled as Alberta whisky.
The government is currently consulting with industry on what the definition should be. “Alberta whisky,” of course, means different things to different people.
Kentucky bourbon, French champagne or even Mexican tequila are all iconic drinks known for their region of origin. Does Alberta whisky deserve a place on that shelf?
Keenan Pascal, CEO of the Edmonton-based Hansen Distillery, said he’s excited about the prospect of Alberta better representing its products on an international scale.
To Pascal, an “Alberta whisky” has a lot to do with the particular ingredients and environment in the province.
“If we go to Japan and go internationally, Canadian whisky already has a really great profile,” Pascal said.
“Now this Alberta story is just another arm, another expansion of this amazing history of whisky making.”
Should AI be used to write the whisky rules, Nally said the legislation would still be subject to all levels of approval to ensure checks and balances were met.
“We may go down this path and say, yeah, it was great, but we wouldn’t do it again, right? Or we may say, wow, this is something that needs to be incorporated,” Nally said.
“It’s not going to get rid of the legislative writer, but it will certainly be a complement.”
Nally said he’s hopeful the whisky rules will come forward on the legislative agenda this spring.
