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AI Assistant for Legal Professionals at Justice Canada

Inform · Education & Learning

What it collects that can identify you

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Users upload documents that may contain personal information related to legal cases, clients, or other individuals. The register confirms the system involves personal information.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Department of Justice Canada (JUS)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization

What it is for

InformEducation & Learning

Otto is an AI platform used by Department of Justice Canada employees to answer questions, summarize and translate documents, and search legislation. It operates within a secure environment designed for sensitive government data. Users interact with a generative AI system, and this use is disclosed to them. The system is currently in development and is not yet deployed to the public.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • Users upload documents that may contain personal information related to legal cases, clients, or other individuals. The register confirms the system involves personal information.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Users upload legislative texts, government documents, and other operational materials for summarization, translation, and search. These inputs drive the core legal-research functions of the platform.

Processing

Language Models
  • Otto is built on large language model technology to enable question answering, document summarization, translation, and legislative search. The specific underlying model or vendor is not disclosed in the register entry.
Computer Vision
  • Otto's Vision AI capability processes images and scanned documents uploaded by users, enabling text extraction and interpretation of visual document content to support legal research tasks.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • Otto uses generative AI to produce answers, document summaries, and translations in response to user prompts. Human employees review and act on the AI-generated content; the system does not make binding determinations autonomously.
Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
  • Otto includes Vision AI capabilities, enabling it to process and interpret uploaded document images or scanned files — extracting text and structure from visual inputs to support summarization and search tasks.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • Otto searches legislation and retrieves relevant passages in response to user queries, grounding its responses in authoritative legal sources and directing users to those sources for verification.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Otto generates answers to questions, document summaries, and translations in response to user prompts. It also surfaces relevant legislative passages. All generated content is advisory; users are directed to authoritative sources to verify responses.

Run by

Department of Justice Canada (JUS)
  • The Department of Justice Canada is the federal institution responsible for deploying and operating Otto. It uses the platform to support legal professionals and government officials in their daily work.

Government of Canada AI Register — Otto (2526-JUS-006)

Built by

Government of Canada
  • Otto was developed by the Government of Canada. The register lists the Government of Canada as the developing party, indicating in-house development rather than a third-party vendor.

Government of Canada AI Register — Otto (2526-JUS-006)

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Data processed by Otto — including user uploads and query history — is accessible to the Department of Justice Canada as the deploying organization. Access is restricted to GC employees; data is held in a secure environment suitable for sensitive government information.

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 UseAI use is disclosed to users of Otto. GC employees using the platform are informed that they are interacting with an AI system. Contact the Department of Justice Canada for further information about this system.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyGC employees have the right to understand how Otto works at a general level, including that it uses generative AI and Vision AI to assist with legal tasks. The register entry provides a public description of the system's capabilities and purpose. Contact the Department of Justice Canada for more detailed information.

Risks and safeguards

  • Civil liberties harmOtto operates within the Department of Justice on sensitive legal and personal data; unauthorized access or data leakage could compromise legal proceedings or individual privacy rights.Safeguard: Otto operates within a secure environment suitable for sensitive data; access is restricted to GC employees; AI use is disclosed to users. The system is currently in development, suggesting ongoing evaluation before full deployment.
  • Reputational harmGenerative AI may produce inaccurate legal summaries or translations, potentially leading to incorrect advice or decisions that harm individuals whose cases are being processed.Safeguard: Otto is designed to direct users to relevant sources for verification and to provide accurate, professional responses. Human legal professionals retain decision-making authority; the AI does not produce binding determinations.