The Challenges of Web Scraping and AI for Research Ethics in Canada: A Survey of University REBs

With the increasing popularity of AI, it is critical to gain an understanding of how academic research ethics are impacted. Unfortunately, in Canada, the <i>Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans</i>, or the TCPS2, lags far behind current technology when it comes to ethical research related to AI. We suspected that REBs at Canadian public universities are struggling to determine how the TCPS2 can or should be interpreted when it comes to AI research. To gauge these challenges, we conducted a survey of REB Chairs/Vice-Chairs and REO managers/supervisors. The results of the survey confirmed our suspicions. They also show the lack of guidance from the Tri-Council and the Panel on Research Ethics is likely making this struggle worse. Through an analysis of the TCPS2, proposed Canadian legislation, and the survey results, we developed a series of recommendations for both the Tri-Council and REBs which may help overcome these challenges and ease the confusion.