“You may have seen the voluntary code being developed with the European Union and the United States. Well, guess what? Canada is in the drafting,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Wednesday. The standards—which AI companies will be encouraged to adopt—are the “best stopgap measure” while governments develop and roll out new laws, he said. (The Logic)

Talking point: Margarethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice-president, revealed the effort to develop the code in late May, ahead of a meeting of the U.S. and bloc’s bilateral trade and technology council. The EU’s own jurisdiction-focused AI law is working its way through the legislative process, but it’s not expected to take effect until at least 2026. “Canada is likely to be the first country in the world to have a digital charter [with] a chapter on responsible AI,” Champagne said, referring to his Bill C-27, which is currently making its way through Parliament. The proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act it contains won’t take effect until 2025 at the earliest. Industry and digital-rights critics have argued there’s no race to be first to regulate AI, and that the legislation leaves too many details to future regulations.