Needs No Introduction

In episode six of the Courage My Friends' season nine, we welcome impact strategist with Animikii, Indigenous Technology, Jeff Doctor, technology and human rights lawyer with Tekhnos Law and senior fellow with The Citizen Lab, Cynthia Khoo, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood.  We discuss Canada's accelerated approach to artificial intelligence and the mobilization of civil society groups against it, multiple impacts of largely unregulated AI on people, planet and democracy, Indigenous perspectives on data sovereignty and digital colonialism and the meaning of AI beyond the hype. Reflecting on the government's accelerated AI development, Mertins-Kirkwood says: "There's definitely a distinct moment that's happening right now. A particular hype cycle, a push to adopt this current iteration of 'artificial intelligence', whatever that means … The question is why are we doing it. The way that the federal government in particular talks about AI is frankly ver