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Course Description

Overview 

In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the global landscape, understanding its multifaceted impact is crucial for informed decision-making at the highest levels. Senior policymakers are at the forefront of guiding government and society through the opportunities and challenges that AI presents. This course will equip current and emerging policy leaders with the knowledge and insights necessary to navigate this evolving terrain confidently.

This one-day course, developed in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), is designed to provide an overview that covers what you need to know about AI to position your work and organization strategically in this rapidly emerging space. The course is divided into three parts:

  1. The science and technology of AI
  2. The ethics, policy, and governance of AI
  3. The opportunities and challenges of AI

The course is designed for non-specialists and will seek to provide a basis for understanding complex aspects of AI without being overly technical.  It will be taught by an interdisciplinary group of University of Waterloo faculty and Centre for International Governance senior fellows encompassing expertise across the fields of computer science, economics, business, and law.

Who Will Benefit

This executive course is designed for:

  • Assistant Deputy Ministers and Directors General who wish to build their knowledge on how AI is reshaping business, government, and society. 
  • Senior government leaders seeking opportunities to improve operational processes and service delivery.
  • Policy leaders across the public sectorwho wish to understand how best to regulate and govern AI technologies.
  • Government executives seeking to build pathways to address Canada’s innovation, productivity and growth gap.

What you will learn 

Module 1: Introduction
  • Introduce AI: a disruptive general-purpose technology that will transform business, government and society.
  • Understand Canada’s innovation, productivity and growth gap and how AI offers a chance to change the trajectory.
  • Explore government’s three core AI challenges: leveraging AI to transform service delivery, promoting AI adoption to boost productivity, and regulating and governing the use of AI.
  • Identify lessons from previous disruptive technologies and develop the 3R (replace, reimagine, recombine) framework for thinking about the coming AI transformation.

Module 2: Basics of AI and machine learning
  • Understand the basics of AI.
  • Investigate the different related technologies that make up the universe of AI.
  • Explore where the technology is today and where it is heading.

Module 3: Generative AI
  • Explore large language models: how they work, how to train them, and how to use them.
  • Discover other forms of generative AI and multimodal approaches.
  • Consider the costs and benefits of different forms of AI implementation.

Lunch and guest speaker: Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
  • Explore the Artificial Intelligence Report.

Module 4: Ethical and governance issues
  • Identify ethical issues related to AI including trust, bias and fairness, data privacy, transparency, and accountability.
  • Develop strategies for addressing these challenges.

Module 5: Regulatory and legal frameworks
  • Develop effective AI policies and regulations.
  • Rethink copyright in an age of generative AI.

Module 6: AI disruption
  • Understand the business capabilities of current and emerging AI technology.
  • Apply the 3R framework, using generative AI as a foundation for rethinking processes, service innovations, and business models.
  • Understand how AI strategy and implementation intersect.
  • Predict the likely impacts of AI on jobs and inequality.
  • Synthesize and situate key learning points from the program in the context of your organization’s strategy and operations.

How you Will Learn 

This executive course offers multiple modes of learning that will allow you to get up-to-speed quickly on how AI is set to radically transform business, government, and society.  This includes:

  • 45-minute modules comprised of short presentations by leading experts in the field and faculty-guided peer-led discussions.
  • Curated readings that will allow you to dig deeper into specific topics of interest.
  • Action learning thought-starters that will apply the 3R model to your organization or one with which you are familiar.
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