It’s June, welcome to another PACES Vancouver Newsletter! A lot has happened since we last emailed you.

PACES on CBC's Early Edition

We are grateful to have been invited to speak on CBC's Early Edition last week, following Vancouver School Board's rollout of Copilot into classrooms.

Before our segment VSB Associate Superintendent Pedro da Silva, and Surrey School District Superintendent Mark Pearmain gave their arguments for why AI is needed in classrooms. Their arguments consisted of:

• AI is inevitable, so we need to put it in classrooms.

• AI is used in business, so we need to put it in classrooms.

• We want to see what students and teachers do with it.

They did not address any of the harms that AI can cause. It took three attempts from the host to get an answer of them as to how AI would be used in classrooms. We go through their arguments in an article on our website.

Popup in Kitsilano Farmers' Market this Sunday, June 14.

We will be at the Kitsilano Farmers' Market for our second in-person popup event, this Sunday! Our last popup at Riley Park was incredibly successful. We got to hear from so many parents, students and teachers about their concerns about AI in classrooms.

Many people took part in our postcard-writing activity, where they wrote their concerns on a postcard and we sent it to MLAs and the Minister of Education.

If you are in the area, please drop by, we would love to hear from you!

• Location: Kitsilano Farmers' Market

• Date: Sunday, June 14

• Time: 10am until 2pm

AI for All - Federal AI Strategy

On June 4, the Federal government released their national AI strategy. It is using the language of ‘benefit’ and “opportunity” to hide the harms. But the benefit is one sided - to speed up AI adoption across all of our society - with a transparent target from just over 12% to 60% by 2034.

When it talks about the importance of safety, it’s only talking about privacy, not mentioning cognitive harms, addiction, environmental impacts, creative atrophy, and what it will mean for our society at large.

The strategy demands your trust, in exchange for a promise of a competitive advantage.

As for your children - they are the target; it promises to “Provide access to trusted AI agents for every post-secondary student – from the arts and commerce to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and medicine.”

While our focus is on local action now, this is a clear signal that we need to start contacting our MPs to tell them that this strategy is NOT for ALL, not for our kids future!

Petition to Ministry of Education and Child Care

The petition to the Ministry of Education and Child Care is still going strong, with nearly 900 people having signed!

We have contacted the Minister Lisa Beare multiple times but have not yet heard back from her. We hope that once we hit 1000 there may be more weight behind our message.

Help us spread the word; share the petition in your school’s group chats, send a message to a friend or share on social media! See some ideas below ⬇️

VSB Trustee Elections

In the last two weeks most political parties announced their candidates for the Vancouver School Board trustee elections that will take place in October.

School Board Trustees can play an important role in supporting our demand for a pause. For example, today in NYC, a similar parent group celebrated getting half of their City Council to support the moratorium on AI in K-12 classrooms 🥳!

We have created a new page on our site where we will list which Trustees support a pause on AI, so it can help your voting decisions.

New Website

We redesigned our website! It will allow us to more easily update it with information on the latest research, campaign updates, and the stances of VSB Trustees as we move towards the election date.

Has your child used AI in schools? Are you a teacher?

If your child has been using the new Copilot 13+ product that was recently rolled out into VSB schools, or if you are a teacher and would like to share your experience, we would love to hear from you! You can just reply to this email, or email us at contact@aicaution.ca

1 action you can take

Share our petition with your network.

Why? The more signatures we have, the stronger our message is and the more likely the Ministry of Education will have to respond to it. More signatures also means more media attention. Media attention can help put pressure on the Ministry to act.

Nervous? Don’t know where to start? Worried about sounding judgy? Here are some ideas.

Start within a small, safe space - a friend chat, a parent group, school chat, relevant event chat.

Here are a few neutral scripts you could adapt:

Version 1

Hi everyone,

I saw this petition going around to pause the use of Generative AI in BC Schools and thought it might be of interest.

Version 2

Hi folks,

I saw a petition poster in my neighbourhood to pause the use of Generative AI in BC Schools and thought it might be of interest to the group.

The petition was started by a group of parents who are concerned about AI’s impact on kids’ critical thinking as well as mental health. Links to supporting research are in the petition, if you are interested to learn more.

Interested in helping out?

If you are interesting in helping our campaign, we would love to talk to you! Right now we especially need people familiar with Instagram, as well as who can write, people who can draw, people who live in different parts of BC who are able to put up posters and spread the word. Just reply to this email to get in contact, or email us at contact@aicaution.ca