Ottawa opens AI transparency consultation on labelling

The federal government has launched a public consultation on stronger transparency rules for artificial intelligence systems and AI-generated content. The exercise will help shape the federal government's next policy steps on AI, it confirmed in a release.

The consultation, which runs until September 23, seeks views on how people should be told when they are interacting with AI systems and how AI-generated material should be identified online. It also asks what information about AI systems should be made public, including how they are developed and what their limits are.

Another area under review is the reporting and tracking of serious incidents linked to AI systems. The government is seeking to examine how to better track the activities and interactions of AI agents, reflecting the spread of consumer products that can act on a user's behalf rather than simply provide information.

The process falls under Canada's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, known as AI for All, which Ottawa launched earlier this year. 

The consultation comes as AI tools become more deeply embedded in daily consumer use and business operations. Statistics Canada has reported that the share of Canadian businesses using AI to produce goods or deliver services continued to rise through the second quarter of 2026.

Officials say wider AI use has increased the need for clearer public information. Synthetic text, images, audio and video are appearing more often online, making it harder for people to judge whether content is authentic, altered or entirely machine-generated.

Federal policymakers are inviting submissions from residents, businesses, researchers, civil society groups and Indigenous communities. The broad scope suggests Ottawa wants feedback from both technical experts and people affected by AI in daily life, from customer service and search tools to content creation and automated decision-making.

The review also overlaps with other digital policy work in Canada. The government has introduced Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act, and Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, as part of an effort to tighten rules on personal data, online harms and platform accountability.

Those proposals are separate from the AI consultation, but they show how Ottawa is pursuing digital regulation on several fronts at once. 

One issue likely to draw attention, according to government input, is how detailed transparency requirements should be without placing heavy compliance burdens on developers and operators. Another is whether standards should vary depending on the risk posed by a given system, its audience or the context in which it is used.

For businesses, the outcome could shape how AI products are labelled, documented and monitored in Canada. For consumers, it could affect how easily they can tell when they are dealing with a machine, whether online material has been altered, and what recourse exists when AI systems cause serious problems.

Setting out the government's position, Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, said: "AI adoption moves at the speed of trust. Canadians need to know when they are interacting with AI systems, when content has been generated or altered by AI, and what these systems can and cannot do."