Canadians can register for the federal government’s free AI basics course

The federal government has announced the National AI Literacy Initiative, a free program intended to help Canadians understand artificial intelligence, what it can do and how it may affect them. It will offer separate courses for teachers, post-secondary students and all Canadians.

The teacher course will provide practical training and classroom-ready resources for kindergarten-to-Grade 12 educators, with five additional chapters to be released through the fall, the government said. The post-secondary course is designed to help students understand AI, use it confidently and responsibly, and build foundational AI knowledge and workplace-readiness skills.

A third course, Essentials for Canadians, will be available through Employment and Social Development Canada’s national Training Finder on Job Bank and through community partners that have not yet been announced. The government has provided $13 million to launch the three free courses with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and expand access across Canada.

CBC reported that the courses will not have instructors and that participants can complete the modules at their own pace. The post-secondary course is expected to take about three hours. Courses for teachers and post-secondary students will first become available Sept. 21.