The difference between a morose bear in the woods and an optimistic lawyer is as vast as the difference between learning morse code and having a say in artificial intelligence.
Fresh from Moonshots LIVE in Los Angeles, and watching Canada roll out a National Council on Artificial Intelligence alongside a National AI Literacy Initiative, the author makes the case that the AI conversation shouldn’t stay confined to stages and councils.
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The future isn’t a private club
I came home from Moonshots LIVE in Los Angeles thinking less about what AI might do and more about who gets to help decide. My answer: all of us.
A community’s ambitions shouldn’t depend on whether someone happens to speak fluent Silicon Valley.
There was plenty of spectacle. William Shatner appeared at the opening-night premiere of The Sixty-Year Mission. Peter Diamandis welcomed us to “Year 1.” It was a refreshing change from being told civilization is in its final season.
But this wasn’t just optimism with a microphone. Five AI business finalists pitched to judges including Cathie Wood and Palmer Luckey. Filmmakers competed to imagine hopeful futures, with The Gifted securing $2.5 million in funding towards a feature film. People were putting real money behind the possibility of things getting better. Later, smaller sessions brought the audience into conversation with the hosts. That felt important too.
It stayed with me. We spend so much time asking what technology will do to us. What happens when we start asking what kind of future we want to build together?
Canada’s recent announcements make that question feel less abstract. Mark Carney’s October 2 National Council on Artificial Intelligence builds on the AI for All strategy. The announcement was met with near universal praise on the calibre of the Council appointments - a very rare thing for anything coming from Ottawa these days! Serious people around the table are a good start.
But the conversation doesn’t belong only to that table.
I’m encouraged that Edmonton’s Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Amii, was selected to lead national AI literacy programming. Free learning for students, educators and, through community partners, Canadians more broadly puts the emphasis where it belongs: helping people participate.
For me, this is community development. It’s giving more people the confidence to imagine new livelihoods, build local prosperity and help shape change rather than simply receive it. A community’s ambitions shouldn’t depend on whether someone happens to speak fluent Silicon Valley.
Learning how AI works is part of that confidence. How does it learn from data? Why can it sound convincing and still be wrong? Where does human judgement belong? We don’t all need to become programmers, but we should feel entitled to ask questions and understand the answers.
I don’t believe the opportunity belongs only to the people on the big stages, or those appointed to councils. It belongs in our towns, neighbourhoods and community halls.
Moonshots left me optimistic. Making learning accessible is how we invite everyone else into that feeling—and into the debates and decisions that follow.