Digital Expo 2025: Bridging the AI Divide

Looking for our Kids Digital Expo? Learn more here.

Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence are reshaping our lives. Join us for a full-day event with industry leaders and local agencies as they discuss responsible technology use, privacy and online safety, digital citizenship and innovation in the age of AI.

Attend an inspiring keynote, engaging panel discussions, a hands-on workshop and explore our vibrant marketplace showcasing the latest AI innovations.

10:15-11:15 am

Empowering Parents to Guide Children in the Digital Age

Discover practical tips from education and media experts to help your child navigate AI and empower them in our rapidly changing digital world. Learn strategies for safeguarding against online risks, protecting privacy and leveraging technology to build new skills.

About our speakers:

• Matthew Johnson
• Riley McNair
• Amanda Lee
• Angus Lockhart
• Evangeline Medina
• Takara Small

11:30 am-12:15 pm

Demystify AI

Hear a panel of experts discuss how AI can be used. Learn how to integrate AI tools effectively into daily routines and discover resources and strategies to stay up-to-date with AI news and trends.

About our speakers:

• Keith McDonald
• Jennifer Casa Todd
• Dr. Zheng Zheng
• Avery Swartz

12:30-1:15 pm

Keynote: Beyond Digital Colonization

Digital technologies, including AI, are often built on extractive models that replicate colonial dynamics—concentrating power, erasing voices and exploiting communities. This keynote from Alejandro Mayoral Baños challenges us to confront digital colonization and imagine alternatives rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous frameworks provide pathways to design AI and digital systems that prioritize care, reciprocity, and collective well-being over profit and control.

1:45-2:45 pm

Ethical AI: Balancing Data Privacy, Security and Public Trust

Explore the ethical considerations surrounding data collection, storage and usage in AI systems. As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the need to balance data privacy and security with public trust has never been more critical.

About our speakers:

• Stacey Ann Berry
• Monifa Brooks
• Kishawna Peck
• Wendy H. Wong

2-3 pm (separate registration required):

Break the Fake: How to tell what’s true online

Join this informative workshop that will provide four quick, easy steps you can take to spot misinformation and find out if something online is true or not. Due to limited capacity, registration is required for this workshop. Please note that this takes place at the same time as the Ethical AI program above. This program will be in Room 101 at North York Central Library.

3-4 pm

Enterface: Encountering Facial Recognition Technology

Join us as a team from the University of Toronto showcases their research project that is based on Amazon Ring, a popular home-monitoring device consisting of a doorbell equipped with a built-in miniature camera. The results from the project provide an immersive learning space for critical thought and engagement surrounding facial recognition technology and its use in Canada. This session is dedicated to privacy, equity, and human rights.

About our speakers:

• Evan Light
• Craig Fahner

9:30 am-4:30 pm

Marketplace (drop-in)

Connect with innovative and educational organizations who will showcase tools, resources and solutions to empower individuals with essential AI and digital literacy skills.

Featuring:

• Competition Bureau Canada
• Connect TO
• The Dais
• George Brown College Academic Upgrading Program
• LiteracyAI
• TPL Pop Up Learning Labs
• TELUS Wise

TPL is committed to accessibility. If you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation for this event, please contact [email protected] or 416-393-7099 at least three weeks prior to the event.

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TPL's Digital Expo is made possible with support from Google.org.

Host or Publisher DIH Online