Yesterday, the federal government unveiled AI for All, Canada’s new national artificial intelligence strategy. Among its commitments is a National AI Literacy Initiative that aims to bring AI training to students, educators, and Canadians across the country. The announcement reflects a growing recognition that AI is reshaping how Canadians learn, work, and participate in public life. But as policymakers focus on expanding access to AI tools, an equally important question remains largely unanswered: what does it mean to be AI-literate in the first place?

Too often, AI literacy is framed as a technical or productivity skill. The assumption is that Canadians need to learn how to use AI. Yet in an era of deepfakes, synthetic media, algorithmically generated misinformation, and AI-generated content, the more pressing challenge may be learning how to question it. If Canada is serious about AI literacy, it should build its approach on the foundations of media literacy and critical thinking.

Canada is entering an era in which seeing is no longer believing.

From sexually explicit deepfakes to AI-generated misinformation and disinformation circulating across news and social media, the impacts of generative AI are becoming increasingly visible and increasingly difficult to ignore.

As a media literacy researcher and teaching assistant, I have seen firsthand how students struggle to navigate increasingly complex digital environments. The rise of generative AI has deepened this uncertainty. Many of my undergraduate students no longer see misinformation as simply a matter of identifying unreliable websites or misleading social media posts. Instead, they are confronting a digital environment in which virtually any image, video, audio clip, or text can be convincingly fabricated. Faced with this reality, many question whether traditional media literacy approaches remain sufficient and worry that growing dependence on AI tools is eroding their capacity for independent critical thought.

A recent KPMG in Canada survey reflects this concern: among the 73 percent of Canadian students surveyed who use GenAI, nearly half (48 percent) believe their critical thinking skills are declining. This raises serious questions about the future of education in Canada. Not all Canadian school boards have formal AI policies, and many are still in development. As students increasingly use AI tools, more attention must be given to how they are taught to navigate a world reshaped by AI-generated media.

Beyond the ChatGPT Debate

Across the country, educators are debating how students should engage with AI. Recent reporting on the issue shows that Canadian professors are beginning to “weave” AI into their teaching. For example, a University of Toronto professor allows students to use AI in a “reaction dialogue”........

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