Inside the 2024 Maclean’s Education Summit

Two months into the 2024–25 academic year, the Maclean’s Ideas Summit convened Canada’s brightest brains to discuss how AI could reshape education, the workforce and Canadian society as a whole. During the event—hosted at the University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, presented by Google and supported by Northeastern University—panellists from Canada Learning Code, the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Google Canada were clear on the tech’s potential, but didn’t shy away from addressing its ethical and applied challenges.

AI’s EDUCATIONAL VALUE
The evening’s marquee panel kicked off with a welcome from Maclean’s editor-in-chief Sarah Fulford (above) and included AI experts (below, left to right) Laura Pearce, head of marketing at Google Canada; Adam Renkosinski, director of AI Talent Initiatives and Analytics at the Vector Institute; and Melissa Sariffodeen, co-founder and CEO of Canada Learning Code, in conversation with Jason Maghanoy, group publisher at SJC. 

The hour-long Q&A opened with a discussion about AI’s application in educational settings—and the ChatGPT bans some post-secondary institutions enacted after the program’s rollout last fall. The panellists were quick to highlight AI’s many upsides for students, including helping those with learning disabilities to digest complex information more effectively. Some forward-thinking professors, they said, have encouraged their pupils to engage in direct conversation with ChatGPT to unpack well-known literary texts. The bottom line: AI won’t fully supplant traditional teaching methods (or teachers themselves). It’ll just expand the ways we learn.  

PUTTING AI TO WORK

 “Canada is a pioneer in AI research, but we lag in its adoption,” said Renkosinski, citing the country’s lower R&D investments relative to other countries. Still, there’s no denying AI has made its way into Canadian workforces in the last few years. In the coming few, panellists said the tech will begin to overtake more mundane, routine tasks, like scheduling, allowing workers to focus on more creative, strategic work. At the same time, fluency in coding, data analytics and AI basics will become table stakes for job seekers. Renkosinski was careful to emphasize one key caveat. “AI will not replace humans,” he said, “but it will change the types of jobs available and the skills required to do them.”

PREDICTION MACHINES

As Canada strives to unlock AI’s full future potential, the experts said they’re keen to make sure the endeavour is as inclusive as possible. All three panellists emphasized the need for human oversight, and for policymakers to create ethical frameworks to avoid unintended consequences, such as dehumanization and overreliance on machines. (Pearce explained that Google has already implemented a variety of safety measures to ensure that its AI model, Gemini, refuses prompts that ask for medical advice, for example.)  The experts concluded that, as AI technology evolves, human guidance and values will still be crucial to its success.