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AI Chatbot for Census Reference Materials

Inform

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Thousands of pages of Statistics Canada census reference documentation, including concepts, definitions, and methodology guides. This corpus forms the knowledge base the chatbot draws upon to answer user queries.
About behaviour
Anonymized data
  • User queries submitted to the chatbot in natural language. The register states no personal information is involved, so queries are treated as anonymous interactions.
Run by
Statistics Canada (StatCan)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Inform

CensAI is a generative AI chatbot developed by Statistics Canada to help members of the public navigate thousands of pages of census documentation. It answers questions about census concepts by drawing on official reference materials. Users are informed that they are interacting with an AI system. The system has been retired from active use.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Thousands of pages of Statistics Canada census reference documentation, including concepts, definitions, and methodology guides. This corpus forms the knowledge base the chatbot draws upon to answer user queries.
About behaviour
Anonymized data
  • User queries submitted to the chatbot in natural language. The register states no personal information is involved, so queries are treated as anonymous interactions.

Processing

Language Models
  • A large language model (LLM) processes user queries and generates natural-language answers grounded in census reference materials. The specific model or vendor is not disclosed in the register entry.
Search & Retrieval
  • The system retrieves relevant passages from the census reference corpus to ground LLM responses, consistent with a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture, though the specific implementation is not confirmed in the register.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • The system uses a large language model (LLM) to generate text responses to user queries about census concepts. Users initiate queries and interpret the generated answers themselves; the AI does not make decisions on their behalf.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system interprets and understands natural-language questions from users and retrieves relevant meaning from thousands of pages of census reference documentation to ground its responses.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Natural-language text responses to user questions about census concepts, generated by the LLM based on official Statistics Canada reference materials. Responses do not contain personal information.

Run by

Statistics Canada (StatCan)
  • Statistics Canada is the federal department responsible for developing and deploying CensAI to make census reference materials more accessible to the public.

Government of Canada AI Register — CensAI

Built by

Government of Canada
  • The system was developed internally by the Government of Canada, with no external vendor identified in the register entry.

Government of Canada AI Register — CensAI

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Not available to me
  • The register states no personal information is collected. Individual users have no personal data on file with this system and therefore there is no personal data to access.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseUsers are informed that they are interacting with an AI system before or during their use of CensAI, as confirmed by the register entry indicating AI use is disclosed to users.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe public register entry for CensAI provides information about the system's purpose, capabilities, and data sources, supporting transparency about how the AI operates. Detailed technical documentation is not publicly disclosed.

Risks and safeguards

  • Societal & cultural harmThe LLM may generate inaccurate or misleading answers about census concepts, eroding public trust in official statistics.Safeguard: The system grounds responses in official Statistics Canada reference materials; users are informed they are interacting with AI, allowing them to verify answers independently or consult source documents.