When we set out to design Gen(Z)AI: Canada’s Youth Assembly on Artificial Intelligence, we were animated by an urgent conviction: that young people, among the most exposed to and affected by AI systems, should not merely be subjects of this technology, but architects of its governance. What followed – across seven months, four cities, one hundred in-person participants, and thousands of virtually engaged young Canadians – exceeded our initial ambitions.

We offer this report to those shaping the future of AI in Canada: to policymakers tasked with designing guardrails for a rapidly evolving technology; to civil society organizations, researchers, and practitioners seeking more meaningful ways to engage the public; and to members of the public who rightly expect to have a voice in decisions that will shape their lives. The recommendations presented here are evidence-based, consensus-built, and grounded in the realities of how AI and online harms are actually experienced by young people. They are written in the participants’ own words, drafted and ratified through the deliberative process described in this report, and presented here without alteration. The contextual analysis and policy framing that surrounds them is our own, offered to situate their recommendations within Canada’s current legislative landscape and to identify the pathways through which participants’ policy goals could be operationalized.

We are confident that the recommendations drafted by Gen(Z)AI participants represent something rarely achieved in technology governance: the democratic voice of those who have the most to gain or lose, speaking clearly and in their own name.