Yukon Human Rights Commission adopts online tool to report harassment and discrimination

The Yukon Human Rights Commission is providing a new way to initiate human rights complaints — with an online tool that uses artificial intelligence.

"Spot" is a chatbot specifically designed to help people document instances of harassment and discrimination.

The Yukon commission will be the first human rights commission in the world to adopt the Spot tool.

It simulates an online messaging platform and takes users through a series of questions to create a detailed and time-stamped report of what has happened to them.

The users can choose to either keep the document for their own records, or consent to having it sent it to the commission. Staff will then follow up with the complainant to continue the process.

'It empowers people'

The commission's director hopes Spot provides a new option for people who might not feel comfortable initiating a complaint in other ways.

"It empowers people to make their own choices about how they want to record what happened to them," said Jessica Lott Thompson.

"If they want to do it at two o'clock in the morning on their phone, that's possible with this bot."

Spot was co-designed by criminal psychologist Dr. Julia Shaw, who says it incorporates the science of cognitive interviewing, which focuses on neutrality and gathering factual, detailed evidence from memories.

"The chatbot style is specifically designed to be as unbiased as possible and to elicit the best possible, and highest number and quality of details," said Shaw.

Shaw and Lott Thompson say the information is kept secure and the tool meets all Canadian privacy laws.

It's available now on the Yukon Human Rights Commission's website.