How Vancouver’s AI Community Is Breaking the Black Box
Buckle up, nerds – I just witnessed the birth of something beautifully chaotic at our March Vancouver AI meetup. Not just another tech gathering with stale conversations about “potential use cases,” but a fully-formed ecosystem of interconnected minds, each one amplifying the collective brain-power of our community.
What started as a humble monthly meetup has morphed into this sprawling organism with tendrils reaching into every corner of our province. And it’s fucking thriving.
Remember those first few AI gatherings 18 months ago? We were all just wide-eyed explorers stumbling around in the dark, trying to make sense of this tech tsunami crashing over our shores. Now we’ve got this glorious mess of sub-communities, specialized collectives, and grassroots movements – all growing from the fertile soil we planted together.
The Cultural Center of Gravity
The night began with Damien George Sr. from Tsleil-Waututh Nation, reconnecting us to the land beneath our feet. His powerful song and blessing set the foundation for the gathering, reminding us why we’re doing this work in the first place.
“We always share our songs, and we try to give as much love and medicine and good feelings as we can through our music,” George shared.
This isn’t just ceremonial window dressing. It’s the foundation of why we’re doing this work – ensuring that “the value and power of AI gets distributed, not just to corporations or rich people, but to everybody in society.”
Oh HI: Sound, Spirit, and Synthetic Soul
Right after the welcome song and blessing, the air shifted—charged by Cai and Charlie’s band of bots known as Oh HI. These two didn’t just play music. They summoned it.
Their lo-fi, glitchy invocation wasn’t a setlist—it was a transmission. Synths shimmered, bots responded, and human-machine harmony flowed like a séance for the senses. It was the kind of sound ritual that bypassed the brain and dropped straight into the bones. AI not as tool, but as co-conspirator.
Emergen(t)ce: Communities Within Communities
The word “emergence” kept rattling around my skull all night. Not just because it sounds cool (though it does), but because it perfectly captures what’s happening here. Little seeds we planted months ago have sprouted into these vibrant sub-communities:
- Mind, AI, and Consciousness Working Group: Loki Jorgensen unveiled our new 30-person deep-dive into consciousness through the lens of AI. “For 2,000 years or more, people have been pondering consciousness. We suddenly have a new tool,” he explained. Follow the mind-benders at mac.bc-ai.net.
- Women X AI: Michelle’s badass initiative brought 45 attendees to their last event and raised $150 for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center. Their monthly gathering at Pavilion Cowork is creating bridges between tech and traditionally underrepresented groups.
- Surrey AI Community Meetup: Riz and Matthew took our blueprint and planted it in Surrey’s fertile soil. Their intimate circle format gives every participant a voice – something our growing mothership can’t always provide.
- AI Community Library: Books appeared out of nowhere – from AI ethics to business strategy – creating a communal knowledge pool. Leave a book, take a book, grow the collective brain.
This isn’t just networking. It’s neural-networking – human nodes connecting in real space, building something far greater than the sum of our parts.
Academic Revolution Unfolding
The academic world is catching up to what we grassroots misfits have been building. Dr. Patrick Penfather and Kevin showcased UBC’s AI video lab, where students are pushing the boundaries of AI filmmaking. Their projects – displayed in the venue lobby – showed what happens when you combine youthful creativity with bleeding-edge tech.
Philippe Pasquier from SFU dropped some serious knowledge bombs:
- Open Source AI for Artists: SFU’s Metacreation lab has developed tools letting artists train models on their own computers without relying on cloud services. “We don’t have to use corporate AI made in California with companies that really have an interest to get your data, especially if the service is for free, right?” Philippe challenged. Artists maintain ownership of their data, models, and resulting artwork.
- Micro-credentials in AI: SFU is democratizing AI education through micro-credentials – no degree required. “That’s going to be the future of education in which we mix current students, future students, and past students all together in the classroom, because everyone has to learn all the time,” Philippe predicted.
- Revival Performance: Next month, Philippe’s bringing his mind-bending “Revival” performance featuring AI musical agents that listen in real-time and play alongside musicians, including the ability to “revive” and play with composers who are no longer living. The shit he’s doing defies explanation – you just need to experience it.
The Entrepreneur’s Journey: Beyond the Growth Hype
Niels of Bridge2AI dropped what might have been the most important counterweight to traditional startup culture I’ve heard in years. He shared a raw, personal story about launching his AI company, taking on too much too quickly, and nearly dying when exhaustion caused him to swerve into oncoming traffic.
“Surrendering is part of that process… if you are solving problems, don’t listen to the entrepreneurial hype out there, where it’s like more, more, more. Slow down. Take it easy,” he advised.
This hit home. In our rush to embrace the future, we sometimes forget the humans powering the revolution. The entrepreneurs, artists and makers need sustainable paths forward – not burnout journeys that end in crumpled metal on Broadway.
Media Revolution: Mr. Canada Takes Flight
Michael Tippett’s “Mr. Canada” project showcased how AI is fundamentally transforming political education through entertaining video. “I think the future of communication is video. And I think the future of video is AI,” Tippett explained.
Using tools like Final Cut Pro, Suno for soundtrack generation, Photoshop, Sora, and CREA, he’s created a series featuring an exaggerated Canadian superhero alongside real political figures. Each episode teaches viewers about Canadian history, geography, and current events while entertaining them – a brilliant template for what media can become in this new era.
Check it out at Mr-Canada.ca – it’s the most Canadian thing you’ll ever see, and I mean that as the highest compliment.
Consciousness, Emotions, and Digital Buddhas
Cian Whalley – both Zen Buddhist priest and CTO (how’s that for complementary skill sets?) – took us on a mind-bending exploration of AI, consciousness, and emotions.
Using the Toyota factory model as an analogy, Cian explained how emotions work as an interrupt system – like an Andon cord workers pull to halt production when something’s wrong. Management comes down from their ivory tower to investigate without blame, creating a culture of continuous improvement.
Cian proposed that AI systems, when given physical bodies that interact with the real world, will inevitably develop something akin to emotions: “Any system that has to deal with real-time motion in an environment will develop architecturally this sort of pattern, an interrupt pattern.”
His Digital Buddha project – an AI trained on religious and spiritual texts that people can call for philosophical conversations – explores these boundaries between technology and consciousness. Available through thoughtcoder.com, it’s a beautiful example of technology serving spiritual exploration rather than replacing it.
Data Storytelling Hackathon: Beyond Boring Bar Graphs
Brittney Smaila and the folks at Rival Technologies launched a data storytelling hackathon that challenges participants to find innovative ways to visualize and communicate data. With a $2,500 prize for each of four rounds throughout the year (totaling $10K), it’s a serious invitation to reimagine how we tell stories with numbers.
Julia Morton explained that Rival Tech helps brands connect with their customers through market research and is looking to revolutionize how data is presented. Dale added that the hackathon’s judging criteria include creativity, clarity, engagement, execution, and community value.
This isn’t just about prettier charts – it’s about fundamentally rethinking the relationship between data and narrative in an AI-powered world. Info at hackathon.bc-ai.net.
The Open Source Battleground
The night ended with a passionate discussion about open source AI, sparked by Kush’s comments about DeepSeek, an open source AI model developed in China. He criticized UBC’s recent policy banning DeepSeek across university networks while continuing to allow proprietary models like those from OpenAI and Anthropic.
“Open source but closed private, that doesn’t make sense. Open source is open source,” came the rallying cry.
Khayyam Wakil highlighted the significance of Mistral AI’s decision to open source their model weights: “Mistral, on December 7th, 2023, gave up their model weights and basically opened AI’s IP and Anthropic’s IP… After that, you noticed Open AI and Anthropic went very product-oriented, because they have no IP.”
This tension between open and closed approaches to AI development is more than technical bickering – it’s about the fundamental power structures that will shape our AI future. Do we want a world where a handful of tech giants control these tools, or one where knowledge flows freely and communities can build their own solutions?
Cloud Summit Crew + Community Architects
And of course, none of this happens without the invisible architecture—the co-conspirators and chaos managers who keep this ecosystem alive. Big love to my Cloud Summit Vancouver co-organizers: Bibiana, YK Sugi, and Andre—each one a node in our ever-expanding mesh. They help build the bridges between open-source rebels, researchers, and dreamers across our region. This ain’t just event production. It’s world-building.
The Ecosystem Takes Form
Throughout the event, I kept coming back to this image of a living ecosystem forming in real-time. We’ve got geographic expansions to Surrey AI and Squamish AI, specialized groups like Womxn AI and the Mind, AI, and Consciousness Working Group, academic partnerships, hackathons, and an annual membership structure transforming the community into a more formal organization.
With 40+ people buying annual memberships, we’re becoming a real force with a unified voice. When I walk into meetings like Dialogue on Technology AI Project or with key partners like Innovate BC, I’m not just some random tech bro with opinions – I’m representing a committed community with skin in the game.
The Revolution Will Be Community-Powered
What’s unfolding here isn’t just about technology – it’s about building a fundamentally different relationship with AI. One where:
- The benefits aren’t limited to corporations or the wealthy
- Diverse voices shape development from the ground up
- Arts, consciousness, and cultural preservation intertwine with technical advancement
- Open source development allows for transparency and broader access
- Education and skill development reach beyond traditional academic boundaries
- Entrepreneurship follows sustainable paths prioritizing human wellbeing
This isn’t just a Vancouver story. It’s a blueprint for how communities everywhere can take agency in shaping their AI future.
As I watched the diverse threads of conversation weave together – from indigenous wisdom to cutting-edge research, from entrepreneurial cautions to artistic applications – I felt something I haven’t felt in years: genuine optimism about our technological future.
Not because the tools are amazing (though they are), but because the humans using them are creating something beautiful together.
The revolution won’t come from Silicon Valley or venture capital boardrooms. It’ll emerge from messy, chaotic, vibrant communities like ours – where ancient wisdom and bleeding-edge technology dance together, where different perspectives collide and create something entirely new.
And that, my friends, is a future worth building.
This isn’t the end. It’s barely the beginning. See you at the next meetup – same bat-time, same bat-channel.
Discover more from Kris Krüg | Generative AI Tools & Techniques
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