Official statement
March 13th, 2020
The AI4Good Lab is rapidly developing a strategy to maintain our programs through risk reduction that reduces COVID-19 transmission while enhancing the positive impact of our program on our participants, partners and collaborators.
In light of the historical presence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the AI4Good Lab strongly supports the Quebec and Canadian governments’ responses in instituting an increase in social distancing to prevent viral transmission. As a non-profit focused on enhancing the wellbeing of all people through the use of social and technological advancement, we are focused on the well-being of our participants, alumni, and partners. We aim to provide a program that exceeds all health recommendations while advancing the careers of women in tech and promoting the use of AI for social good.
As an organization devoted to inclusion and advancing social good, this global pandemic provides an opportunity to analyze our methods of inclusion. While the majority of us are affected in such a drastic manner for the first time, others among us have at various times been at an increased risk of disease transmission and borne the brunt of exclusion from social events. As a society, we must reflect and respond to this pandemic to ensure adequate responses in the future and the inclusion of those in self-isolation even in otherwise healthy times. With our advancements in technology, we are simultaneously burdened by the effects of our global world and gifted with the means to surpass those circumstances and bring together our community in alternative ways.
Now is the time to combine our creativity, drive, and technology to weather this storm while transforming our society in the long-term to better all individuals, regardless of location, ableness, or identity.
To all of our applicants, we are currently in the review process and are delaying our selection in response to the pandemic. Rest assured we will have an update in a week, but at the moment expect to finalize selection in the first week of April.
Maya Marcus-Sells
Executive Director