Canadas Competition Bureau investigating if AI is helping set rental rates [Video]

Canada’s Competition Bureau is investigating the potential role artificial intelligence (AI) is playing in tracking and setting rental rates across the country.

“As soon as the renters in the country started, you know, doing some rent strikes, really pushing back, I started speaking to renters all across the country,” Bonita Zarrillo, MP for Port Moody-Coquitlam told Global News.

“And we heard about these algorithms softwares, YieldStar, and other softwares and they said that these softwares were capturing data about them and artificially allowing them to drive up rents.”

Last August, the U.S. Justice Department filed a suit against real estate company RealPage Inc., which owns YieldStar, accusing it of an illegal scheme that allows landlords to coordinate to hike rental prices.

The suit alleged the company was violating antitrust laws through its algorithm that landlords use to get recommended rental prices for millions of apartments across the country.

Zarrillo said those same companies are operating in Canada.

She made a …