Canada unveils ‘AI for All’ as Berkeley flags classroom harms

On June 4 in Toronto, Prime Minister Mark Carney and AI Minister Evan Solomon unveiled the federal ‘AI for All’ strategy. The plan sets targets of up to $200 billion in added economic growth and 250,000 new jobs over five years and aims to lift business AI adoption from about 12% today to 60% by 2034.

The program includes free AI literacy training for one million postsecondary students and promises ‘trusted AI agents’ for every learner. Officials described the initiative as an update to the 2017 Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, which helped create research centres such as Vector, Mila and Amii.

Carney wrote on social media: ‘AI is here. The question is whether it will improve the lives of all Canadians or benefit only a few… That’s why we need an ambitious new strategy: AI for All.’ Government documents outline funding for training, regulation and incentives to increase business use of AI tools.

At the same time, UC Berkeley data show a 35.3% failure rate in a large introductory computer science course in spring 2026, up from under 10% in prior years. The department had expected a roughly 7% failure rate.

Teaching professor Dan Garcia linked the higher failures to AI-enabled cheating, reporting nearly 30 students were detected using large language models on take-home exams. Faculty members reported that office hours are often emptier than before, and one instructor found a student who moved from a class with an ‘open AI’ policy and then could not perform basic linear algebra tasks in a follow-on course.

An outplacement firm reported 38,579 U.S. layoffs in May listed AI as the reason, accounting for 40% of that month’s reductions. The firm reported companies have cited AI in 87,714 job reductions so far in 2026, ahead of the 54,836 cuts tied to AI in all of 2025. Some observers note the ‘AI’ label is sometimes used to justify routine cost cutting.

The federal government describes the strategy as an effort to expand AI adoption while building skills through education and workplace programs. Government and university officials will monitor training and hiring trends as companies introduce more automation and AI tools.