Ronald Deibert, founder and director. Photo by Dillon Byrne

The ability of governments and criminal actors to surveil and target people is growing in scope, scale and sophistication thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), says Ronald Deibert, founder and director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which conducts cybersecurity research.

AI holds the potential to make “positive” tasks more efficient, but it’s also “making more efficient … tasks and activities that are highly corrosive of society,” he said at the Vancouver Writers Fest last week, where he headlined a sold-out talk on cyber espionage and democracy.

In the realm of cyber espionage, which refers to the use of digital tools to spy on and steal information from people, organizations, and governments, “the entire

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