What happens when students are told not to use AI, but also told they’ll need it for their careers?

For Aasha Khan, a Grade 12 student at Cameron Heights and founder of Youth Tech Labs, that tension defined her first encounters with AI. At school, the message was clear: avoid AI or risk suspension. At home, her father, a Chief AI Officer, encouraged her to explore the technology. The mixed signals left her, like many of her peers, caught between fear and curiosity.

Aasha decided to create a safe space where high schoolers could learn AI together. Youth Tech Labs has since grown into a community that draws more than a hundred students, runs hands-on workshops, and hosts demo days where participants present their AI projects. Along the way, Aasha launched AskEve, an AI chatbot designed to break stigma around menstruation and open up con ...