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AI Assistant for Government Employee Document Research

Inform

What it collects that can identify you

About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • User-provided chat queries and conversational inputs submitted by GC employees during sessions with the assistant.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization

What it is for

Inform

EVA Domain Assistant is a generative AI chat tool that lets Government of Canada employees ask questions about a curated library of documents and selected websites. The system uses large language models to find and summarize relevant information from those sources. It is currently in development and is used only by internal government staff, not the general public. Users are informed that they are interacting with an AI system.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • User-provided chat queries and conversational inputs submitted by GC employees during sessions with the assistant.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • A curated library of documents and a limited set of external websites selected and uploaded by the ESDC team, which form the knowledge base the assistant draws from.

Processing

Language Models
  • Large language model used to interpret employee queries, retrieve relevant content from the document library, and generate natural-language responses.
Search & Retrieval
  • Semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline used to find relevant passages from the uploaded document library and selected websites in response to employee queries.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • The system generates text responses to employee queries by drawing on uploaded documents and selected websites. Employees review and decide how to use the generated output.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system applies natural language processing to understand user queries and match them against the document library and selected websites.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Natural-language text responses generated by the assistant in reply to employee queries, drawing on the curated document library and selected websites.

Run by

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
  • ESDC is the Government of Canada department responsible for deploying and operating the EVA Domain Assistant for use by its employees.

Government of Canada AI Register — EVA Domain Assistant

Built by

Government of Canada
  • The system was developed internally by the Government of Canada, with ESDC as the accountable department.

Government of Canada AI Register — EVA Domain Assistant

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Data produced by the system, including session interactions, is accessible to ESDC as the accountable department.

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 use is disclosed to users as confirmed in the register.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyThe system is listed on the Government of Canada's public AI register, which discloses its purpose, capabilities, and the fact that personal information is involved. GC employees may consult the register for general information about how the system works.

Risks and safeguards

  • Societal & cultural harmThe system may generate inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information from documents, which employees could act on without verification.Safeguard: The system is in development status, limiting deployment scope; users are informed of AI use; the knowledge base is curated and limited to selected documents and websites chosen by the ESDC team, reducing (but not eliminating) hallucination risk.
  • Psychological harmEmployees may over-rely on AI-generated responses, eroding critical judgment or creating dependency.Safeguard: Disclosure of AI use at the point of interaction is confirmed; the system targets internal GC staff who can be trained on appropriate use; development status implies ongoing oversight before broader rollout.