We all know about the federal government’s multi-billion dollar Phoenix pay system boondoggle. But what the heck, eh? It’s not their own money they are wasting due to incompetence, it’s ours. Now federal officials overseeing billions in benefit payments to millions of Canadians are hoping artificial intelligence can resolve ongoing snags in the system used to handle applications and decisions regarding disability pensions. Applicants for Canada Pension Plan disability benefits gave the program the worst service ratings compared to Employment Insurance and general CPP payments. It can take months for a medical adjudicator to make a decision about a request for CPP disability payments, a timeline that the feds in charge of the program say can be reduced through an automated review of applications. A test of an AI system was launched in March and results won’t be known until next year. I’m somewhat sceptical because the main definition of artificial is something made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally and the word often connotes a lacking of a desirable quality. It was human beings who made and produced the Phoenix system to pay civil servants.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.