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AI Assistant for Pacific Fisheries Information

Inform · Wayfinding & Services

What it collects

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Text and image content from the publicly available DFO Pacific Fisheries internet site, including policy documents, governance materials, science and research publications, and fisheries management information.
Run by
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

InformWayfinding & Services

This AI chatbot helps Government of Canada employees find specific policy, science, and fisheries management information from the DFO Pacific Fisheries website. It uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to surface relevant documents and images based on the meaning of the user's question. The system does not process personal information. Users are informed that they are interacting with an AI system.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Text and image content from the publicly available DFO Pacific Fisheries internet site, including policy documents, governance materials, science and research publications, and fisheries management information.

Processing

Search & Retrieval
  • Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline that performs semantic vector search over indexed DFO Pacific Fisheries website content to find the most relevant passages and images before generating a response.
Language Models
  • A language model synthesizes retrieved content from the DFO website into a coherent natural-language response to the user's prompt.

What it does

Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • Uses semantic understanding of the user's natural-language prompt to match it against content from the DFO Pacific Fisheries website and retrieve the most relevant documents and images.
Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • Generates natural-language responses that synthesize retrieved content from the DFO Pacific Fisheries site into coherent answers for the user, grounded in retrieved documents and images.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Natural-language responses generated by the chatbot, including returned key information, relevant documents, and images retrieved from the DFO Pacific Fisheries website. Outputs do not contain personal information.

Run by

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
  • The federal department deploying this AI chatbot to help GC employees access DFO Pacific Fisheries information.

Government of Canada AI Register — 2526-DFO-MPO-009

Built by

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

Government of Canada AI Register — 2526-DFO-MPO-009

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Not available to me
  • The system does not process personal information; therefore no individual data access rights apply. The register explicitly states that personal information is not involved.
Available to the accountable organization
  • Outputs and query logs (if retained) are available to Fisheries and Oceans Canada as the deploying organization. Primary users are GC employees, not the general public.

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. The AI Register entry confirms that AI use is disclosed to users.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThis system is listed on the Government of Canada AI Register, providing public transparency about its purpose, data sources, and use of retrieval-augmented generation technology.

Risks and safeguards

  • Psychological harmThe chatbot may generate plausible-sounding but inaccurate responses (hallucinations), potentially misleading GC employees in policy or fisheries management decisions.Safeguard: The RAG architecture grounds responses in indexed DFO website content, reducing fabrication. AI use is disclosed to users, encouraging critical review of outputs. The system is still in development, allowing further testing before wider rollout.