Through a $13 million national partnership with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), the Canadian government has established the national artificial intelligence (AI) literacy initiative, which will offer free, practical AI learning opportunities for students, educators, workers, and communities across the country.
Evan Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, announced the launch of the new initiative under “AI for All,” the national AI strategy.
“AI literacy gives people the practical skills to benefit from these technologies, understand their risks and decide where AI belongs in their lives,” Solomon said in a news release from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
ISED explained that the initiative aims to help Canadians:
- Comprehend AI
- Gain foundational AI knowledge
- Utilize AI technologies responsibly and confidently
- Understand when not to use AI
- Make informed choices about the role of AI in their lives
- Build with AI tools
- Assess AI-generated information
- Benefit from AI-related opportunities
- Identify risks arising from AI, including bias, misinformation, and privacy loss
ISED expects the initiative, through Amii-led programming, to reach up to a million post-secondary students and over 50,000 kindergarten-to-grade-12 (K-12) educators.
ISED’s news release discussed the three learning streams, which target students, educators, and Canadians.
For students
As of Sep. 21, Canada’s post-secondary institutions can join the initiative’s consortium. At institutions within the consortium, students can take “Essentials for Students,” a free, three-hour AI literacy course that touches upon workplace readiness skills.
For educators
Also beginning on Sept. 21, the first chapter of “Essentials for Educators” will be openly available. The course aims to equip K-12 educators with practical training and resources for their classrooms. Five more chapters will launch throughout the fall.
For Canadians
This year, the first complete version of “Essentials for Canadians” will be available across the country through community partners, including organizations targeting communities in urban, rural, and remote areas.
According to ISED, those working and seeking jobs can take short AI training courses via Employment and Social Development Canada’s national Training Finder on Job Bank. These resources aim to aid in understanding and adapting to AI amid changes in jobs, tools, and workplaces.
“Through the National AI Literacy Initiative and the Job Bank Training Finder, we are helping people build new skills, explore career opportunities and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow,” said Patty Hajdu, minister of jobs and families and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, in the news release.
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Here are some other recent news stories involving AI.
Supported by the data centre, cloud, AI, and technology sectors, the federal government announced on Sept. 3 the launch of Canada’s responsible data centre development principles, a common national framework for how the country can add data centre capacity.
As part of a Tech Week organized by the Prince Edward Island IT Alliance, the province announced on Aug. 10 that five PEI companies, which were working to utilize technological developments in AI to spur industry innovation, had received seed capital via the Ignition Fund.
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