Gradient Descent Into Community

Hi friends, A quick pulse check as we slide into fall: the September Vancouver AI meetup is around the corner, the dataset just landed, and BC + AI is taking a clear shape.

1) Sept 24 Vancouver AI Meetup: Just around the corner!

Twenty‑one gatherings in a row and still getting weirder, deeper, kinder. We’re back at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre on Wed, Sept 24, 6–10 PM. It’s a night where code meets culture and nobody postures… short field reports, honest demos, hallway debugging, a few tricks up my sleeve.

If you’re coming, grab a spot so I can get the headcount right; I want the food generous and the bar properly stocked when the ideas start flying.

Got something brewing? Bring it.

2) AI Hackathon Round 4 — the dataset just dropped.

1,000 Canadians on music: how we discover it, how formats shaped us (vinyl → cassettes → CDs → streaming), and how it feels when AI‑generated songs slip into the mix. Not just stats—stories, theme songs, guilty pleasures, resistance. We cleaned it, mapped sentiment across 3,000+ text entries, and kept the edges so you can read the grain. Turn it into something useful: an agent that argues for/against AI tracks, a generational format map, a memory palace of theme songs, a zine, a visualization, a performance.

Submissions due Oct 15.
Awards + demos Oct 29. Prize: $2,500.
Repo → https://github.com/WalksWithASwagger/vanai-hackathon-004
Email “I’m in” → [email protected]

In partnership with Rival Technologies.

3) BC + AI Association: Membership as infrastructure.

We’re formalizing what’s already alive: a member‑led commons for BC: coastal, cultural, carbon‑smart. Multi‑modal, multi‑cultural, radically local, future‑facing. It’s community infrastructure you can touch: a Funding Directory (200+ programs, updated and battle‑tested), an Ecosystem Map to find collaborators fast, the ongoing AI Hackathon series and resources, a members‑only WhatsApp lounge for the real talk, a monthly newsletter that’s signal over noise, and an open line when you’ve got questions, leads, or constructive rants.

Join if you want to help steward public‑good tools, connect across regions, and grow a people‑first AI culture rooted in this place.

See you under the UFO roof on the 24th,

KK & the BC+AI crew