Hackathon | Championing AI for good: Building safer AI for youth mental health

Mila
thress people working in front of one computer with post it on a white table beside them

Join a groundbreaking collaboration between Mila, Bell, Buzz HPC and Kids Help Phone on Canada's most comprehensive AI ecosystem, Bell AI Fabric. From March 16 to 23, 2026, we're uniting top AI minds with deep expertise in youth mental health to build innovative AI solutions that empower young Canadians to interact safely with conversational AI tools.

While conversational AI offers immense promise, it also carries risks, potentially amplifying psychological distress. This hackathon challenges you to use your voice, skills and lived experience to fortify the future of AI safety. We’re inviting Canada's brightest minds in guardrail training, prompt engineering and synthetic data to stress test and develop systems and guidelines to strengthen AI support for youth mental wellness. 

  • Your mission: Identify vulnerabilities and engineer robust defences—build the armour that keeps our youth safe—by diving deep into three critical areas: Adversarial stress-testing, logic hardening, and synthetic data augmentation.
  • Expert evaluation: Your solutions will be judged by a distinguished panel of AI safety experts, clinical psychologists and UX professionals. They'll assess your work based on safety, user experience and data quality.
  • Win big: Do your part to help save lives, compete for a share of CAD 10,000 in monetary prizes and get the inside track to an exclusive internship with the Mila AI Safety Studio.

Participation guidelines

Participation is open for individual or team registrations. All participants need to meet the following criteria, which will be verified upon registration and prior to awarding prizes:

  • Age: Due to the sensitive nature of the materials, participants will be required to show proof of age 18+.
  • Residence: All participants must reside in Canada.
  • Team composition: Great solutions are born from diverse perspectives. We'll run a team-matching session to ensure every group has a balanced mix of technical and clinical expertise.
  • Inclusion: We're seeking solutions for the unique Canadian context that engineer inclusive, multilingual safety layers by enhancing performance in English and Canadian French – with a nuanced understanding of regional idioms – and recognizing diverse cultural expressions to proactively eliminate systemic bias.
  • Well-being and ethics: We prioritize participant well-being. Given the sensitive nature of this hackathon’s focus on mental health, participants will be presented with a disclaimer regarding potential triggers.
  • Privacy first: Use only synthetic data. No real-world PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is allowed.
  • Terms and conditions: Additional details, including specific instructions for the hackathon, IP and terms and conditions, will be provided once your registration is confirmed.
  • Participation: The hackathon will be held virtually with the option to participate in-person at the Mila office in Montreal on March 16 and 23. Participants attending either or both of the in-person events should be aware that there may be filming and interviews taking place. No participant is required to take part in interviews, but they should be aware that they might be visible in the background.

 

 

Opening Conference - March 16

Before participants dive into the technical work, the Opening Conference sets the stage by bringing together leading AI researchers, clinical experts, and voices from the ground to discuss the frameworks necessary to build AI that is not only powerful, but safe. 

On March 16, 2026, from 9 am to 12 pm, the event will feature expert presentations examining the benefits and limitations of AI in mental health, as well as the safety risks posed by current systems and the mitigation strategies being developed to address them. 

This conference is open to the general public and can be attended either in person or virtually. In-person attendance is limited.

More details and registration here

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who can participate?

Undergraduate and graduate students, technicians, and professionals are welcome to participate. The competition is open to individuals with knowledge or experience in technological solution development, data analysis, programming, design, marketing, business, finance, mental health, psychosocial wellbeing, public health, prevention, care, community-based approaches, and other related fields.

All participants must be 18 years and older and reside in Canada. Participants may register individually or as part of a team. 

How are teams formed, and who should they include?

Although participants may register individually, all competitors must be part of a team. Individuals who register on their own will be assigned a team based on their experience and expertise. 

For those registering as a team, we strongly encourage participants to form multidisciplinary groups, as collaboration across different areas of expertise significantly strengthens the quality and impact of solutions.

Teams must consist of 3 to 5 members, and can include participants from the same or different Canadian institutions. Each team is highly recommended to include at least one (1) data scientist, developer, or programmer to ensure sufficient technical capacity. We also encourage participants to take time zone differences into account in order to facilitate collaboration.

What tools are needed to compete?

Each participant is responsible for using their own computer, equipped with the hardware and software they deem necessary, along with reliable internet access. The event organisers will provide access to collaborative digital tools, communication platforms, and the core datasets required for the competition. Participants are also welcome to collect, create, and use their own datasets, tools, or resources as needed to support their solutions. 

Do participants have a chance to win prizes?

Yes. By taking part in the hackathon, participants  have a chance to win a share of the CAD 10,000 in monetary prizes, as well as be considered for an exclusive internship with the Mila AI Safety Studio.

Solutions will be judged by a distinguished panel of AI safety experts, clinical psychologists and UX professionals, on the basis of safety, user experience and data quality.

All participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Are there any costs associated with registration?

No, registration is free. However, participants must be mindful that places are limited and that, should they be selected, they will be expected to actively participate throughout the duration of the competition. 

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