Responsible AI Professional Certification
Lead with ethics in an AI-first world.
⚠️ Limited to 30 participants | Early bird pricing ends April 15, 2026
Every organization is deploying AI. Most are doing it without governance frameworks, without ethics training, without asking the hard questions.
The organizations that will lead aren't the ones with the fastest models. They're the ones with people who know how to assess risks, apply frameworks, and navigate complexity before deployment.
RAP Certification for AI Professionals & Practioners
RAP (Responsible AI Professional) is a 4-week certification program for leaders, executives, and practitioners who need to understand, implement, and govern responsible AI practices.
Not academic theory. Not vendor sales pitches. Not another ethics course that stops at principles.
You'll work through real scenarios. Apply global frameworks (UNESCO, OECD, NIST, IEEE). Build artifacts you'll use in your actual work. Walk away with a custom Ethics Practice Assistant trained on your own analysis.
This isn't about learning to talk about AI ethics. It's about building a practice.
Meet Your Instructors
Sarah Downey: Instructor - AI consultant and strategist based in Victoria with 20+ years in nonprofit and social impact leadership. Hosts facilitated conversations for nonprofit leaders on ethical AI governance. Course creator focused on helping mission-driven organizations adopt AI responsibly with her ethos: Stay Curious. Stay Connected. Stay Human. Brings nonprofit sector expertise, facilitation skills, and values-centered approach to AI governance. BC + AI Founding Member #138.
Martin Lopatka: Curriculum Developer - PhD in Forensic Statistics, M.Sc. in AI. Mozilla alumni with production ML systems experience. Expertise in responsible AI assessment frameworks, model governance, regulatory alignment. Voluntary contribution to curriculum design. BC + AI Founding Member #31.
Kris Krug: Program Lead - Kris Krüg is a digital strategist and community builder specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence, creativity, and technology. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Kris leads AI-focused initiatives that bridge technical innovation with practical applications across various industries.
Responsible AI Professional Certification Commitment Timeline
The RAP course itself will take place virtually, spanning 4
consecutive 90 minute sessions on Friday afternoons (May 22, May 29, June 5, June 12) from 15:00-16:30 PT.
Ahead of each session we expect participants to dedicate 90-120 minutes for materials pre-reading, allowing us to make efficient use of our time together in the session (this includes materials that will be sent ahead of the first session!). After the final scheduled session (June 12), we will host an additional 60 minutes of peer presentations to showcase the work yourself and your peers have accomplished throughout the month.
In total we expect the certification to take 16 hours of focused effort. Looking forward to meeting you virtually.
Syllabus
Week 1: Foundations: Understanding AI and Its Limits
Theme: Technical Grounding + The Accuracy Problem
How AI systems actually work (demystifying the technology)
The confidence-accuracy gap: Why AI sounds right when it's wrong
Hallucinations and confabulation: When inaccuracy is annoying vs. dangerous
Global ethics frameworks: UNESCO, OECD, NIST, IEEE
Artifact: Personal AI Inventory - Document your systems and assess accuracy risks
Week 2: Core Ethics - Bias, Privacy, and Ownership
Theme: The Three Pillars
Bias & Prediction: Identify algorithmic bias, understand fairness definitions
Privacy: Data collection, consent, surveillance economy
Copyright & Creative Work: Who owns AI inputs and outputs?
Artifact: Ethics Assessment - Apply bias, privacy, and copyright frameworks to a real system
Week 3: Societal Impact - Deployment, Labor, and Environment
Theme: Systems Thinking
Deployment Ethics: When is AI ready? When should it never be used?
Labor & Work: Displacement, augmentation, worker surveillance
Environmental Impact: The carbon cost of computation
Artifact: Deployment Checklist - Evaluate deployment readiness for an AI system
Week 4: The Human Element: Authenticity, Relationships, and Meaning
Theme: Human Values
Authenticity: Deepfakes, synthetic media, trust erosion
Social Life: Human-AI relationships, parasocial dynamics, vulnerable populations
The Human Spirit: Creativity, agency, meaning in an AI age
Artifact: Ethics Impact Assessment - Comprehensive framework application
You're in the right place if you:
Lead AI initiatives: You're overseeing AI deployments and need governance frameworks that actually work, not just policy documents that sit in a drawer.
Budget for your own development: You're an executive or senior professional who invests in capability building. You're not waiting for your employer to figure out what training matters.
Are in career transition: You have severance funds earmarked for upskilling, or you're pivoting into AI governance, or you're differentiating yourself as an AI practitioner who understands ethics.
Want to build a practice, not just get a credential: You're not here to add a line to your resume. You're here to walk away with frameworks, artifacts, and a custom AI assistant that helps you apply what you've learned.
What You'll Walk Away With
1. RAP Certification: Completion of all assessments, practical exercises, and final capstone. Globally applicable, grounded in multiple frameworks (not just one jurisdiction or perspective).
2. Personal Ethics Practice Assistant: A Custom GPT trained on your coursework artifacts. It knows how you think, the frameworks you've applied, the systems you've analyzed. It's your ongoing practice partner after the program ends.
3. Four Practical Artifacts:
Personal AI Inventory (your landscape map)
Ethics Assessment (your analysis methodology)
Deployment Checklist (your readiness criteria)
Ethics Impact Assessment (your comprehensive framework)
4. Professional Network: Alumni join BC + AI's professional community. Monthly office hours, special interest groups, ongoing education. This isn't a one-time course - it's an entry point into a network.
💰 MEMBERSHIP MATH (READ THIS FIRST)
BC + AI members save $750 on this certification.
BC + AI membership costs $340/year.
Join BC + AI first → Save $750 on RAP → Net $410 in your pocket
Plus you get:
→ Friday office hours (every week, forever)
→ Discord community access (850+ members)
→ Vancouver AI meetup priority
→ All future BC+AI certification discounts
Step 1: Join BC+AI membership ($340) → bc-ai.ca
Step 2: Register for RAP at member price ($750)
Step 3: Save $410 and feel smart about it
The Movement: BC + AI Ecosystem Association
This meetup is part of BC + AI a member-driven nonprofit where meetups turn into working groups, prototypes turn into shared tools, and community values turn into governance.
We are building the public-interest infrastructure for AI in British Columbia ensuring that our local-first intelligence outlives its creators and powers the next era of West Coast innovation.
Vancouver AI was just the start. The ecosystem keeps growing across BC... Surrey, Victoria, Comox, Kelowna, and beyond... each node bringing its own culture, needs, and experiments.