Picture your 78-year-old grandmother at a University Health Network hospital describing her symptoms to a doctor who is using an AI-enabled technology to interpret medical imaging to help make a diagnosis. However, the tool has never been tested on older patients with multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, or the use of various medications, or age-related physiological changes.

This scenario is not hypothetical. AI is already used by Canadian health-care providers, government services and in other environments for older adults.

Some of these tools bring real benefits, from helping interpret medical imaging and detecting cancer earlier to reducing administrative burdens and freeing clinicians to spend more time with patients.

But without proper regulation, they can also produce serious harm: diagnostic errors due to limited training data, hallucinations, discriminatory decisions and automation bias that can cause humans to make decisions based on flawed AI recommendations.

To combat this, the federal government should create a centralized AI oversight body; impose regulations based on the risks posed by AI-enabled technologies; ensure that biased age-related data is addressed before deployment; and involve older adults in the development of these policies.

The federal government has spent years investing in AI through its pan-Canadian artificial intelligence strategy yet still lacks a coherent regulatory framework capable of protecting older adults and others affected by AI-enabled technologies.

Ottawa sought to address that gap through the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act but that legislation died when Parliament was prorogued for the April 2025 election. Since then, the government has appointed a minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and renewed its focus under its national artificial intelligence strategy: AI for all, released in June.

But that strategy, which is weighted toward adoption and economic opportunity, is not a substitute for protection. It offers no firm commitment to a comprehensive statutory framework, deferring instead to a patchwork of future legislation and piecemeal amendments to existing........

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