AI in 2026
Trillions of dollars have been invested in the “Artificial intelligence” industry globally and hundreds of billions are allocated to build out “AI” capacities in Canada from public as well as private funds. This massive concentration of wealth and power is fuelled by the promise that machine learning will become indispensable in much of our economic activity, potentially replacing millions of human workers.
Even if the technology falls short of its promises, “AI” already represents a historic concentration of power as big tech scrambles to remake our workplaces, civic infrastructure, social lives, culture and even physical landscapes in the image of AI. Initiatives for regulating the technology are scarcely playing catch up while governments turn to a consultant class that advocates for minimal intervention or historic subsidies.
Why a Civil Society Summit?
The Civil Society Summit on the AI Industry is an opportunity to slow down and take a close, critical look at what is being decided and implemented on our behalf, without any meaningful public consultation.
We’ll hear from organizations confronting the “upstream” of AI: data centres’ water and energy use, climate impacts, mineral extraction, electronic waste, and violations of Indigenous rights. And we’ll discuss the downstream effects: impacts on mental health, online sexual violence, workplace surveillance, deskilling workers, devaluing labour, collapse of social trust, intensification of fossil fuel production, automation of artistic and cultural practice, undermining Indigenous data sovereignty, racial profiling and algorithm-facilitated discrimination.
Who will be there?
We are convening Indigenous leaders, labour organizers, environmental advocates, journalists, cultural workers, researchers, lawyers, and community organizers from across Canada to map the full picture of AI’s impacts and strategize collectively. By connecting upstream and downstream impacts of rapid adoption of machine learning technology through the communities and actors fighting back, we are hoping to build a powerful cross‑sector coalition capable of confronting the social, ecological, and democratic challenges posed by corporate Canada, AI investors and the agenda they are advancing through every level of government.
What will we do?
We’ll share knowledge, highlight resistance, learn from global struggles, and begin shaping a unified approach to the AI agenda — one grounded in environmental and migrant justice, workers’ rights, Indigenous sovereignty, public accountability, and livable futures.
Organizers
The Summit is organized by the Council of Canadians with many partners.