Man serving time on gun charges accused in 2007 slaying

Public servants and elections

We currently are in the midst of elections, mostly on the municipal level. Voters are reviewing policies and promises in anticipation of new programs and commitments that hopefully will enhance their daily life.

While those seeking political office live in anxiety during this time as they await their electoral fate, so too do many civil servants as election results will also determine their futures.

It is these civil servants who we rarely think of at election time.

It is now perhaps axiomatic to declare that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the world, as researchers and industry insiders are projecting the novel technology to become the greatest technological breakthrough in human history.

There has been a flurry of discussion in both our local and international contexts — and with good cause. We must remain steadfast to ensure our youth, local workforces, and environment are not negatively impacted by this burgeoning technology.

I wish to accentuate, however, a somewhat neglected area of public discussion around AI developments. Specifically, we urgently need to re-evaluate the ethos of humanity, particularly cognizant of the emergence of this digitally superintelligent species.

If artificial superintelligence (ASI) is ultimately achieved, leading academics theorize that these digital agents will be sentient, conscious, and astronomically more intelligent and powerful than us. In fact, numerous scholars believe AI to already possess some level of consciousness in its current iteration. This position is held by eminent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, for example.

For years, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (“MACA”) has been engaged in a dispute with the Manitoba government over the workload of its lawyers. That dispute is expected to come to a head at the end of November, when two weeks of grievance hearings are scheduled.

We remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement with our employer. But if we cannot, our union’s lawyers are prepared to make our case. As those hearings approach, we want to explain how we got here, what is at stake, and why this dispute matters beyond the working conditions of our members.

These problems are longstanding and predate the election of Manitoba’s current government. Our concern with the current government is not that it created these problems, but that it is now responsible for addressing them.

Despite the evidence before it, the government has not meaningfully addressed the workload concerns we have raised throughout its time in office.