# Q&A: Amii CEO explains why Canada’s AI literacy initiative is about agency > Source: > Published: 2026-09-11 17:46:11+00:00 On Wednesday, Canada unveiled its [National AI Literacy Initiative](https://betakit.com/canada-unveils-national-ai-literacy-initiative/), announcing free AI training for students, educators, and the Canadian public over the coming year. The initiative is part of Canada’s overarching [National AI Strategy](https://betakit.com/canadas-ai-strategy-contains-2-3-billion-in-spending-few-details-on-new-privacy-regulations/) and a key plank in how the feds intend to build trust with the public and drive AI buy-in.  At the helm of the initiative is the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), one of three national AI research organizations that helped lay the foundation for the current technological revolution. Much of the federal AI literacy programming is modelled after training courses Amii has been building and offering to the public for the past decade. Amii will lead the development and deployment of the nationwide rollout, too. To get a better understanding of what a national literacy campaign actually looks like, and to understand why it matters when it comes to public perceptions of AI, *BetaKit* sat down with Amii CEO Cam Linke to chat about the new initiative. Here’s what he told us.  *The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.*  ##### Tell us about the curriculum. Our focus here really is on literacy: on people having that core understanding about what AI and what machine learning is. The student side is a little more focused on workforce readiness, and the [Essentials for All Canadians](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/ai-literacy-building-knowledge-and-skills-canadians) is more focused on the civic side of things, and on people understanding the technology from that lens. The educator side is obviously through an education lens. Our goal is to be able to provide agency to all of those groups and, ultimately, what it’s going to mean for each of them. We recognized early on in our team that literacy was going to be a core part of AI technology, so literacy at Amii has been a long-standing thing for us. ##### What’s the benchmark for being “AI literate” for the average Canadian right now? I’m not sure I have a specific metric, but the word we keep using is agency. At each of the levels we’ve talked about here, people need to have the agency to be successful as they’re bringing this technology into classrooms, or as Canadians who are navigating AI and dealing with it in their personal and professional lives. For us, if we’re able to drive agency in all of these groups, that’s going to be the part we’re really proud of. What we’ve tried to do from the start is meet people where they’re at and leverage what they need to be successful in their area. To us, that kind of bridge piece has been the part that has made our programming very successful, and has maybe helped break down some barriers and concerns. This isn’t us charging in telling everybody what they need to do, it’s working with them to understand their goals and then working alongside that. ##### Can you tell us a little bit more about Amii’s role in this initiative? It’s building on the foundations around what we’ve already started for educators, our workforce readiness for post-secondary students, and that kind of baseline for the rest of Canadians. This is building on that work and just continuing the momentum. Amii is leading the initiative, but all of this stuff is going to be done in partnership. When you look at the rollout of the Essentials for Canadians programming, we’re going to be doing that with partner organizations. We’re certainly not trying to position this as us being an isolated group trying to plan this out. We work very closely with our institute partners across the country on everything we do within the national strategy there, and within the rollout and development of this. Mila and the Vector Institute are definitely going to have involvement in parts of it. ##### There’s a growing sense of dissatisfaction or distrust around AI development right now. How much of that backlash is related to a lack of understanding, versus how much of it is coming from a place of informed concern? I don’t want to sit here and say ‘anyone who is concerned about this it’s just because they don’t get it.’ People have concerns they want to bring forward, and they want to make sure they’re addressed, and we should be having meaningful conversations about those concerns. On our side, we do want to make sure those conversations can be as informed as possible, whether it’s about what AI can or can’t do, or whether it’s about data centres. We at Amii think we can actually have really meaningful conversations if people are informed coming in. The only way to really do that is for people to have that base literacy to start, and then we’ll be able to work together to get to a good solution for everyone. ##### How important is a broad sense of AI literacy to Canada’s larger ambitions around AI rollout? If you look at any technological revolution that’s happened, it’s the places that drive out the diffusion of that technology that typically end up being leaders, and they’re the places that set the standard for that technology overall. **RELATED: [Minister Evan Solomon on Canada’s AI strategy](https://betakit.com/ai-minister-evan-solomon-betakit-podcast/)** For us AI literacy means people making informed decisions around adopting it, where it can be used responsibly. Doing that quickly makes sense and puts us in the position to be able to drive this forward, be the leader, and set the tone and expectations around AI. Historically, the places that have done that well have been leaders, and I think we have a big opportunity to do that here in Canada. For me, literacy is a core part of it. ##### Are other countries looking at national AI literacy initiatives? We’ve seen a few places that have done national programs … there’s national courses that may be highly technical but aren’t really accessible in raising the literacy of an entire country for example. To me, Canada is the first place that we’ve seen really target these different levels and try to grow the literacy overall in the entire country. *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.*