Get ready for Season 8 of Wonks & War Rooms! This season, we’re looking at AI Beyond Tech. Chatting with experts from social sciences, humanities and law, we ask what’s missing from discussions of AI, its impacts and its governance.

Host Elizabeth Dubois will talk to uOttawa scholars and other experts about everything from ethical engineering to environmental concerns, from privacy to data sovereignty.

As always, episodes drop every Wednesday morning every week. The first episode drops exceptionally Thursday October 1st, as we pay respect to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th.

Thanks for listening!

Contributors

Host: Elizabeth Dubois
Transcript: Areej El-Sharif
Audio Editing: Sarah Pledge Dickson
Translation: Julianne Bernier Robert
Publishing and Promotion: Aaron Brisson
Producer: Sarah Pledge Dickson

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this episode, Elizabeth talks to Mike Pal, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, about election laws in Canada. Elizabeth and Mike discuss the laws and institutions that govern elections in Canada, including the Canada Elections Act and Elections Canada. They discuss threats to election integrity and security posed by new technologies in an age of democratic decline. Elizabeth and Mike also delve into the threat of foreign interference, voter privacy in big data elections, and a changing media environment prone to misinformation and disinformation. They close out by talking about artificial intelligence (AI), specifically its potential to transform our electoral landscape and how we should best prepare to ensure our laws and institutions continue to bolster public trust in our democracy.

Additional Resources

• Throughout the episode, Mike and Elizabeth reference the Canada Elections Act to understand part of Canada’s legal regime around election integrity and security.
• Mike cites the American Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) case as an example of the importance of election laws as a way for citizens to exercise their political rights.
• Elizabeth discusses the need to begin mapping out the role of technology in election security laws in Canada, including potential threats to elections and how election laws might then be updated or changed. For more information, consult: Election Integrity and Security.
• To listen to our episode on Foreign Interference at the Nomination Level, consult: Season 7 Episode 4 - Foreign Interference at the Nomination Level with Conner Coles.
• Mike mentions how there are privacy rules of various kinds, but political parties federally are an exception, to learn more consult: Guidance for federal political parties on protecting personal information.
• To listen to episodes from our season on political influencers, consult: Season 6 of the Wonks and War Rooms podcast.
• Elizabeth and Mike also reference the Elections Modernization Act to understand the importance of updating laws to protect election integrity and security.
• Mike mentions the ‘Big Lie”; the idea of claiming without justification or without evidence that the electoral system is rigged on one side or the other.
  
  Contributors

Host: Elizabeth Dubois
Research Lead: Michelle Rodrigues
Transcript: Michelle Rodrigues
Audio Editing: Ayman Naciri
Translation: Els Thant & Helena Legault
Publishing and Promotion: Helena Legault & Michelle Bartleman
Producer: Michelle Hennessey

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.

In this episode, Elizabeth talks to Nick Taylor-Vaisey, a journalist for Politico who works on the Ottawa Playbook, a free daily morning newsletter decoding Canadian politics. Nick and Elizabeth discuss the role of newsletters in curating information in a high-choice media environment and the way journalism has adapted to becoming digital. They discuss newsletters as a form of political information sharing and how this type of media can facilitate a direct relationship between author and reader. Elizabeth and Nick close out the show by chatting about the different reasons that individuals might subscribe to a political newsletter, the role of news aggregators in curating information, and what it's like to work in the Ottawa “fishbowl”.

Additional Resources:

• To learn more about the high-choice media environment, check out Wonks and War Rooms’ first episode: The High-Choice Media Environment with Jane Lytvynenko.
• Nick mentions how newsletters are an old medium that are being updated to stay fresh and trendy. For some background on the history of the newsletter, consult The Newsletter Boom, 300 Years before Substack.
• Nick provides examples of how the unmediated and relational nature of newsletters allows him to cultivate a direct relationship with his subscribers. For an academic perspective on this, consult: Email Newsletters and the Changing Journalist-Audience Relationship.
• Elizabeth and Nick talk about how audiences are increasingly seeking out journalists’ opinions on the news. For an example of this, consult The Rise of the Talking Journalist: Human Voice, Engagement, and Trust in Live Journalism Performance.
• Elizabeth and Nick discuss the parasocial relationship between the author and reader, for more details on parasocial relationships, check out the Wonks and War Rooms episode on Parasocial Relationships with T.X. Watson
• Elizabeth also mentions the blurring of the boundaries between political journalist and political pundit or social media influencer or columnist or opinion writer. For more information about the difference between journalism and punditry, consult the article: Are pundits journalists?

Contributors

Host: Elizabeth Dubois
Research Lead: Mykenzie Barrera
Transcript: Michelle Rodrigues
Audio Editing: Ayman Naciri
Translation: Els Thant & Helena Legault
Publishing and Promotion: Helena Legault
Producer: Michelle Hennessey

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.