The Government of Canada unveiled its National AI Literacy Initiative Wednesday morning, delivering on a promise outlined in Canada’s broader National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The initiative was announced by federal AI Minister Evan Solomon at a launch event at Edmonton’s Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii).
AI Minister Evan Solomon
“We’re the country that helped create this technology. Now, we must, and will be, the leader in AI education and skills training.”
“Students need to understand, educators need to understand, workers, parents, communities, [that] they need support and literacy, because education is the best hedge against change,” Solomon said of the government’s plans to increase access to AI training.
A partnership between Amii and the federal government, the $13-million initiative will launch on Sept. 21. It will be led by Amii, which has an established track record of producing AI literacy programming upon which the federal government has modelled the national initiative.
“Amii has shown us what practical AI education can achieve,” Solomon said. “Amii has an education course that we are building on for the entire country.”
Initiative programming will be rolled out across three streams: one for students, one for educators, and another for the Canadian public. Streams focus on providing “practical learning opportunities” around the essentials of AI that the federal government believes will help Canadians “understand AI, use AI, and, for those who choose, build with AI.”
Programming will also look to provide learners with the skills to assess AI-generated information, identify things like misinformation, bias, or privacy concerns, and enable them to use AI technology “more confidently and responsibly,” according to statements from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
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The initiative’s programming will be rolled out in a tiered process over the coming months. A free, three-hour course for post-secondary students, as well as the first chapter of an Essentials for Educators course are both planned to come online on Sept. 21. Five additional chapters are slated to be published through the fall. ISED expects the initiative’s programming to reach up to one million post-secondary students and more than 50,000 K-12 educators.
Later in the year, the Essentials for Canadians programming will launch nationally, with programming being delivered through community partners. During his remarks on Wednesday, Solomon said that workers and job seekers will be able to access “short-duration” AI training through the Government of Canada’s Job Bank portal. That programming will focus on how Canadians can understand and adapt to AI as jobs, tools, and workplaces change.
“We’re the country that helped create this technology,” Solomon said. “Now, we must, and will be, the leader in AI education and skills training.”
Built on Amii
Much of the initiative’s programming takes its cues from Amii’s existing literacy programming, which the federal government said was foundational in building out a national program. Cam Linke, Amii’s CEO, said the national initiative will follow in the steps of programming like Amii’s AI for Everyone literacy course, which focuses basic training on AI concepts, capabilities, and information on how to make informed decisions about AI use.
“It’s not about turning everyone into an AI expert; it’s about giving everyone the foundation they need,” Linke said.
The development of a National AI Literacy Initiative was first introduced this summer as a component of the Canadian government’s national AI strategy. It was pitched as a program that would provide entry-level AI training accessible to all Canadians. Its unveiling now makes good on one of the government’s six AI pillars: to empower Canadians with AI training.
During the summer rollout of the AI strategy, Solomon said Canada’s three AI research institutes, Amii, Montreal’s Mila, and Toronto’s Vector Institute, would play roles in the development and implementation of AI literacy programming. It is unclear if Mila or the Vector Institute will be involved in the rollout of the initiative at this time.
Currently, less than a quarter of Canadians have any formal AI training.
Changing perceptions
The delivery of this component of the AI strategy comes at a key moment for the Canadian government. Negative sentiment regarding AI data centres, and AI development more broadly, is growing. In Alberta, provincial technology minister Nate Glubish and Premier Danielle Smith came under fire for the province’s support of data centre buildouts at town halls designed to dispel concerns around the technology’s rapid integration.
Roughly half of Canadians view AI as a potential threat to humanity. As AI Strategy task force member Taylor Owen noted earlier this year, addressing those concerns through literacy training could help in sending a signal to Canadians that understanding and awareness are an important part of the government’s broader AI ambitions.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy Amii.