St. George Street’s late-winter air has that recognizable Toronto chill that forces students to move swiftly between glass research labs and sandstone buildings. But there are warm conversations going on inside. The University of Toronto is drafting plans for what may turn out to be Canada’s first AI ethics campus, a location that aims to raise ethical concerns about the use of smarter machines rather than just building them. The move seems to convey both assurance and uneasiness. With innovations that influenced the current generative AI boom, the university contributed to the development of contemporary deep learning. It is now…
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The glass facade of an admissions office at a downtown university in the capital of Ontario reflects a chilly winter sky on a chilly morning. Inside, employees examine digital apps that are neatly arranged in lines on bright screens. Predictive software has been used by some institutions for years to help sort through those files, predicting which applicants will accept offers, excel academically, or obtain visas. The province is now taking action, becoming the first in Canada to restrict the application of AI to college admissions decisions. According to officials at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities, the action…
Students shuffle through slush-lined sidewalks and into brick school buildings that appear to be unchanged from decades ago on a gloomy Montreal morning. On the inside, however, the tension is fresh. More care is taken when opening laptops. Teachers move around more purposefully. Classroom rhythm is being altered by a subtle change in policy: following a spike in suspected cheating, a number of school boards have taken action to restrict or outright ban AI learning tools. The decision comes after a dramatic increase in assignments that seem to be algorithmically generated, according to administrators throughout Quebec. CategoryDetailsCityMontrealProvinceQuebecGoverning AuthorityCentre de services…
The dry smell of last season’s straw is still present in the wind on a piece of publicly owned land outside a prairie town. As pickup trucks move along gravel roads, metal poles with sensors on top silently measure the temperature and moisture content of the soil. What appears to be a typical field is turning into a test site for a new type of agriculture that is driven as much by data as by diesel. By securing the right to build smart farms on Crown land, Canadian startups are allowing automation, climate resilience, and precision agriculture experiments on publicly…
A civil servant in Quebec City is relaxing in her chair while testing a new digital assistant in French inside a bright government office with a view of the St. Lawrence River. The response is idiomatic, accurate, and prompt. No clumsy anglicizations. Without hesitation. Simply confident, clean French. That detail is crucial for a province where language is more than just a means of communication; it is an integral part of its identity. A French-speaking AI assistant has been introduced by the Quebec government to assist citizens in navigating public services, such as immigration and tax forms. It appears to…
Condensation forms on the inside of a Victorian terrace’s sash window on a soggy winter morning in Oxfordshire. The radiator is working harder than it should and hums softly. While silently avoiding inquiries about insulation, boilers, and heat loss, real estate brokers guide purchasers through slender corridors while complimenting “period charm.” Local officials now seek to bridge this exact divide between comfort and charm. The county is getting ready to test “heat passports,” which are paperwork that would be included with every house sale and list heating systems, insulation levels, retrofit histories, and suggested improvements. At first glance, the concept…
Tension seems to be heightened by the Capitol’s marble corridors. Television cameras sit near the House chamber doors as staffers hurry between offices on recent afternoons, holding folders full of vote counts and spending tables. The battle over President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget proposal has reached its first real test and is playing out more like a family dispute leaking into the public eye than a partisan skirmish. A $3 trillion spending plan that aims to restructure social programs, finance climate projects, and increase federal assistance for families is at the heart of the controversy. The political math is painfully…
On a pale winter morning outside a Prescott elementary school, the scene is familiar: teachers greeting students with practiced composure, parents hovering by car doors, backpacks dragging along concrete. Beneath this routine dance, however, is a remarkable policy discussion. Arizona lawmakers have put the state squarely in the national debate over whether or not more guns can make schools safer by advancing legislation that would permit trained school employees to carry firearms on campus. The HB 2022 bill would establish a taxpayer-funded program to teach school staff how to carry concealed weapons. In sharp contrast to the hundreds of hours…
Exhaust vapor drifts into the brittle air as engines idle outside coffee shops along 17th Avenue on a winter morning in Calgary. The hoods of compact sedans and pickup trucks are covered in road salt. Although it’s difficult to imagine this commonplace scene going away, the argument to outlaw gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 implies just that. The idea—a policy ambition colliding with geography, culture, and infrastructure—feels both inevitable and unrealistic at the same time. The drive starts in Ottawa, where Canada has pledged to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035 as part of its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by…
Winter grips the sidewalks in ridges of grey ice outside downtown Edmonton’s glass towers. While office workers bustle between buildings with their shoulders bent against the wind, a more subdued shift is taking place inside many of those offices: software is automating reports, improving workflows, and taking over tasks that previously required entire teams. The purpose of Alberta’s proposed transparency regulations is to reveal this more subtle change. As part of a larger modernization of privacy and AI governance, the province is working toward legislation that would mandate employers to disclose when artificial intelligence replaces human roles. The initiative is…