AI-Assisted Visual Creation for Public Servants
Inform
What it collects that can identify you
- User-provided text prompts or descriptions entered by GC employees to instruct the system on what visual content to generate.
- Run by
- Canada School of Public Service (CSPS)
- Where
- No fixed location
- Kept
- Not stated by the Helpful Places.
- Shared with
- Not stated by the Helpful Places.
What it is for
Napkin is an AI tool used by Government of Canada employees to help create visual content such as diagrams and illustrations. It is deployed by the Canada School of Public Service and supplied by the vendor Napkin. The source material provides very limited detail about how data is handled, who can access outputs, or what safeguards are in place.
What it collects and what happens to it
Data taken in
- User-provided text prompts or descriptions entered by GC employees to instruct the system on what visual content to generate.
Processing
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
What it does
- The system generates visual content (diagrams, illustrations) in response to user input. A human employee decides what to create and reviews the output before use.
Outputs
- AI-generated visual content such as diagrams and illustrations, produced for use by Government of Canada employees in their work.
Run by
- The Canada School of Public Service is the federal department that deploys and operates Napkin for use by Government of Canada employees.
Built by
- Napkin is the external vendor that builds and supplies the AI visual-creation system licensed by the Canada School of Public Service.
Kept for
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
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.
- AI registerGovernment of Canada Algorithmic Impact Assessment Register — Napkin (2526-CSPS-EFPC-011)Canada School of Public Service, AI Register entry 2526-CSPS-EFPC-011, retrieved 2026-05-08.
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- AI registerGovernment of Canada AI Register — Napkin
- Register entryPublished by the Helpful Places. Reference 8590cb75. This disclosure was drafted with AI assistance.Schema: ai@2026-05-06-beta
What you can do
Ask about this system
Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.
Your rights
The Helpful Places has not listed specific rights for this system.
Risks and safeguards
No risks or safeguards have been published for this system yet.