CSA Disclosure Review Highlights AI-Washing And Greenwashing Among Other Continuous Disclosure Concerns

Last week, the Canadian Securities Administrators staff (CSA) issued their biennial report covering the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years identifying topics of CSA focus in their review of continuous disclosure documents during the period. While many of the concerns highlighted in CSA Staff Notice 51-365 [PDF] have been the subject of CSA reminders in the past, the report for the first time also addressed concerns about emerging areas of disclosure, such as overly promotional claims relating to artificial intelligence (AI) and greenwashing.

Overly promotional AI disclosures

The CSA report cites AI and sustainability as areas in which certain issuers have been overly promotional in their continuous disclosure filings, leading to information that is either untrue or unbalanced. The CSA reminded reporting issuers that are adopting new technologies (including AI) of the need to consider whether disclosures regarding the use of the technologies and the evolving risks