An AI community for youth

Why AI?

Artificial intelligence has transformed both the way computers think and the way we think about computers. Intelligent, thinking machines with the power to make complex decisions are revolutionizing fields such as healthcare, finance, art, manufacturing, and more. From targeted advertisements to voice-activated virtual assistants, AI is playing an increasingly large role in our lives.

As AI becomes an important part of our world, we will need to ensure that AI’s vast potential is used for good.

Our Mission

We at the Youth AI Lab aim to make this revolutionary technology more accessible to today’s youth, the future pioneers and problem solvers who will need to understand how to use AI ethically to solve the world’s problems.

Distinguished Speaker Series Recap

We’ve compiled together some interesting anecdotes and statistics from our Speaker Series. Keep scrolling to find out more, and if you’ve missed any of the talks, you’ll find links to their recordings below!

Some Words of Advice

In the Youth AI Speaker Series, we’ve had a chance to learn from industry and academic experts and provide the next generation of AI pioneers with valuable information. Here are some of the most frequent pieces of advice we’ve heard:

• How can I as a young person get started in the field of AI?
  • What is wonderful today is there are so many different paths into the field. Traditionally, it was really through an education in computer science, engineering, or math – those were really the kind of typical ways and of course, these are still always really great ways to get into AI. I was an engineering undergrad, but I have students who come more from a linguistic side and an economic side, so I think there are a lot of different paths into it but generally, I would say CS, math, engineering, and sometimes physics, are the most common tracks. However, over time, we will need a lot of people from philosophy, sociology, law, ethics, and a whole variety of fields to really build AI systems that are complete and that bring value to society. – Dr. Joelle Pinneau
• How can we evolve alongside increasing competition in the start-up world surrounding the AI industry? 
  • The best antidote to lots of competition is high rates of execution, meaning moving fast. That counters what we were talking about before, the care you need to take in terms of building your models, but it’s the reason why the data acquisition challenge exists. Because if you can’t acquire the data fast enough, you lose ground really quickly to others. Evolving with customer needs and acquiring the raw inputs to your models and decision-making tools is necessary to sustain the competitive edge. In response to a follow-up question about sacrificing quality for efficiency, Les Schimdt answers, The ethics do come in when deciding between quality and quick response. Do I move fast knowing that the model is not complete and may provide wrong insights to customers? Or do I wait longer for more data? This plays out in the real world. ChatGPT gets announced; Google comes along and says “We’re announcing Bard [AI] but we’re not releasing it yet.” We’re seeing these decisions play out in real-time, in our day-to-day world. – Dr. Les Schimdt

Our Community

Through these talks, we’ve also garnered an internationally diverse audience, demonstrating that familiarity with AI is a global skill:

Our Future Plans

Through understanding the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, we can look ahead into the expanding potential of intelligence frontiers and machine learning. 

The Youth AI Speaker Series aims to create student-to-expert connections, bring accessibility and literacy to AI, and prepare high school students in prospective AI fields. Speaking on tiny AI, AI graphics, cognitive AI, and AI in Fintech, the series has and continues to speak on the different implications of artificial intelligence thanks to our speakers. These talks, similar to Youth AI Hackathons and university-partnered events, are tailored toward those new to artificial intelligence, opening the barrier to everyone of all backgrounds. 

In addition to the speaker series, Youth AI Lab connects more students to experts in AI with the mentorship program. Look forward to our monthly speaker series, the upcoming mentorship program, and videos released explaining the foundational basics of AI.