Kids Code Jeunesse, a Canadian non-profit teaching children to code, has announced a new initiative, #kids2030, aiming to educate one million kids about AI, through in-class programming and workshops, by the year 2030.
The initiative will allow kids to experiment with algorithms and neural networks in the same way industry experts do.
The launch was announced at Kids Code Jeunesse’s first AI pilot workshop in Montreal. The program is positioned to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The program announcement also comes ahead of the upcoming World AI Summit’s Americas conference, which is coming to Montreal this month.
“The spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies, as does scientific and technological innovation across areas as diverse as medicine and energy,” states the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The initiative will be targeted toward elementary school students, and will give them the chance to learn about and experiment with algorithms and neural networks, in the same way industry experts do. They will use Scratch, an open source platform and programming language, accessible online that’s adapted to their level.
The fourth UN Sustainable Development goal is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” and through #kids2030, Kids Code Jeneusse is endeavouring to help fulfill that goal.
With leading AI research organizations like IVADO and MILA, as well as emerging startups like Element AI, Montreal has become a global hub for artificial intelligence. The city is hosting the two-day World AI Summit this month, an annual conference scheduled to tackle AI issues and set a global AI agenda.
In January, Kids Code Jeunesse partnered with coding bootcamp Lighthouse Labs to venture to Northern Canada as part of the national Code Create Teach Initiative. Kids Code Jeunesse was also among the organizations that received a $6 million grant from the federal government’s $50 million CanCode initiative in January.
Image courtesy pxhere.