Carleton Challenge Conference: 2025 Recap

The 2025 Carleton Challenge Conference brought together leading voices in artificial intelligence to examine the urgent opportunities and risks shaping our digital future. From healthcare and education to ethics, policy, and public trust, speakers tackled the dual challenge of harnessing AI’s potential while mitigating its societal harms.

With keynote insights from Carleton’s own Adegboyega Ojo and Ericsson’s Elena Fersman, alongside panel discussions featuring national and international experts from government, industry, and academia, the conference explored what it will take for Canada to lead responsibly in a rapidly evolving global AI landscape.

Explore the highlights, key takeaways, and event stories below.

2025 Recap Video

The AI Challenge Podcast

The AI Challenge podcast is a flagship production of Carleton University’s 2025 Challenge Conference, hosted by Olivia Grandy and Audrey Pridham.

Each episode, you’ll hear from leaders and scholars within the technology, business, research, and academic sectors as they discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on our society, and the risks that come with it.

The AI Paradox: Carleton Challenge Conference Explores Opportunities and Risks

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an incredibly powerful tool, but navigating the risks and responsibilities that come with such an enormously disruptive and transformative technology will not be easy.

Avoiding the ‘Paperclip’ Conundrum: Innovating with AI While Limiting Risk

The Carleton Challenge Conference tackled one of the central challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) — the tension between its immense possibilities and potential peril — during a panel discussion exploring the ethics, policy, governance and... More

May 15, 2025

Ericsson Exec Envisions ‘Self-Driving’ Autonomous Networks of AI ‘Friends’

Elena Fersman embraces a scenario that some artificial intelligence (AI) pessimists would likely describe as a nightmare: self-automated telecommunication networks created by AI systems tapping each other for ideas. Fersman, vice-president of Swedish-based telecom giant... More

May 15, 2025

Balance Opportunity and Responsibility in Unleashing AI’s Power

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the power to transform the way business is conducted and how public services are delivered, a group of panelists at the forefront of the AI revolution said at Carleton's annual Challenge... More

May 15, 2025

Harnessing the Power of AI for the Greater Good

While it may still seem to some like futuristic technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is already having impacts on almost every facet of Canadian life in real time. That was a central theme at Carleton University's... More

Photo Gallery

A red and white sign with the text Carleton Challenge Conference.

A overhead view of seven round tables with chairs.

A man delivers a speech from a podium. — Carleton Professor Adegboyega Ojo, Challenge Conference keynote speaker and Canada Research Chair in Governance and AI, highlighted the ‘AI Paradox’ facing Canada as it attempts to translate its strong research profile on AI into economic and social benefits.

Five people sitting at a table, taking part in a panel discussion with an audience in the foreground. — Moderator Allan Thompson, director of Carleton’s journalism school (right), leads a discussion titled “Catching the Wave of a Digital Tsunami” with panelists (left to right) Carleton computer scientist Majid Komeili, director of the university’s Intelligent Machines Lab; Danielle Manley, director of Carleton’s new School of Nursing; Julien Kathiresan, director of finance with Mistral Venture Partners, and Sonya Shorey, president and CEO of Invest Ottawa.

A large conference room, with panelists sitting at a table at the front of the room, and a large audience seated in front of them.

An overhead view of a room full of round tables, with red tablecloth and groups of people sitting around each table.

Two people shaking hands, while one of the people shaking hands speaks with a third person.

Three people wearing business suits engaged in conversation at an event.

A panel discussion and the audience sitting in front of them.

A man with glasses speaks into a microphone while standing at a podium. — Carleton University Vice-President (Research and International) Rafik Goubran delivers a speech at the 2025 Carleton Challenge Conference.

A woman wearing a green dress jacket delivers a speech from a stage.

A man and woman laughing while having a conversation. — Fersman speaks with Carleton University Industry and Partnership Services (IPS) director Chris Lannon

A woman delivers a presentation with PowerPoint on a stage.

2023 RECAP

2024 RECAP