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).
“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 told a packed room at Amii.
The initiative itself will officially launch on Sept. 21. It will be rolled out in a tiered process led by Amii, in partnership with post-secondary institutes and K-12 schools. Students and educators will be the first to receive the initiative’s programming, which will come via a free course available in both official languages. Workers and job seekers will receive support later in the year through the Government of Canada Job Bank, and programming will be made available for the rest of the broader Canadian public by the end of 2026.
Solomon said the federal government will invest $13 million to launch the course and expand AI literacy; the initiative is expected to reach roughly one million post-secondary students and 50,000 K-12 institutes.
“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.”
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.
The post Canada unveils national AI literacy initiative first appeared on BetaKit.
