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- Vancouver AI: Resistance to the Tech Broligarchy 🇨🇦
Vancouver AI: Resistance to the Tech Broligarchy 🇨🇦
Vancouver’s grassroots community shaping AI with authenticity, soul, and some serious swagger.
Kris Krüg
March 22, 2025
Hey Vancouver AI crew,
KK here—writing this one with a heavy dose of real talk, given everything that's unfolding around us. As we watch our southern neighbors grapple with the chaotic intersection of tech and politics, let's remember this: AI isn't neutral. It’s shaped by power dynamics, politics, and ideology. But here's the thing—we have a say in how this plays out. Vancouver's AI community isn't just another tech hub; we're actively building a counterbalance to Silicon Valley’s digital oligarchy.
We’ve got three critical meetups coming your way:
March 26th Vancouver AI Community Meetup: Real dialogues around quantum storytelling, Zen-driven tech mindfulness, and deep ethical conversations on synthetic personas. No fluff, just frontline insights.
April 30th Vancouver AI Community Meetup: More genuine exchanges and hands-on demos at our UFO-shaped home base—the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
May 28th Vancovuer AI Community Meetup #WebSummit Special Edition: We’re linking Vancouver’s grassroots AI community directly into global conversations happening at Web Summit.
We’ve just rolled out the Vancouver AI CORE Annual Membership. Think of it as your year-round access pass, a digital space built by and for the community. It's our collective tool for reclaiming AI from corporate interests. Dive in here.
The neural network that connects Vancouver's creators, hackers, and thinkers needs nodes like you to thrive.
Join the Vancouver AI Community and Power Our Ecosystem: You're not buying tickets—you're investing in community infrastructure.
This isn't about exclusive access. It's about creating a sanctuary where ideas can breathe before they hit the noisy mainstream. Where your weird AI experiment might connect with someone else's weird AI theory and birth something previously impossible.
The digital landscape is changing faster than any of us can track alone. The CORE is how we navigate it together—sharing signals through the noise, amplifying the meaningful, filtering the bullshit.
Join if you believe building this ecosystem matters. Join if you want to be part of something bigger than algorithms and hype cycles. Join if you're tired of surface-level tech conversations and ready for something deeper.
The future isn't built by spectators.
Forget meaningless dashboards and sterile visualizations. This hackathon is about making data speak truths that matter. We've teamed with Rival Tech to challenge your storytelling chops, AI skills, and creative coding prowess. $10K up for grabs across four events. First deadline: April 16. Details here.
AI Upgrade for Creative Professionals
Kicking off April 9th, our six-week certification is your opportunity to wield AI intentionally in your creative work—no gimmicks, just practical skills to navigate and shape the digital future. Join the next cohort.
BC’s Expanding AI Ecosystem
Our local ecosystem is thriving, with grassroots meetups popping up in Surrey, Hornby Island, and beyond. Shoutout to Ryv and Matthew Schwartzman of Surrey AI, and Michelle Bajurny of Womxn in AI Meetup, pushing the boundaries of what our AI community can become. Let’s keep nurturing this digital garden—diverse, decentralized, and human-first.
Sponsors & Partners
SEGEV LLP: Lawyers who speak our tech language.
Rival Technologies: elevating data and supporting community creativity
Dimitri Schwartzman: Real estate that supports community over yachts.
Metacreation Lab: Generative systems since 2008.
TheUpgrade.ai: Empowering professionals through AI Certification & Training.
Appreciation also to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Creative Mornings Vancouver for backing these crucial dialogues.
Stay Connected
Our events fill fast—200 people max. Come ready to connect authentically, bring stickers, and share your curiosity. Photography is ongoing, heads up.
Need to talk, demo, or vent existential dread? Reach me directly at [email protected] or text 778.898.3076.
Stay sharp, stay human,
KK
PS: If you missed recent key conversations, here they are:
The Ethics of Brain-AI Integration: Dr. Judy Illes Reveals What's At Stake: What happens when AI meets your brain? Dr. Judy Illes, Distinguished Professor at UBC and neuroethics pioneer, breaks down the revolution happening at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
When Your Digital Twin Stares Back: Brittney Smaila's Teleportation Paradox: The fourth in Brittney Smaila's ongoing series of AI-focused spoken word explorations, this performance at our February Vancouver AI Community Meetup takes the classic teleportation paradox into digital territory.
Reimagining Work: Conscious, AI-Driven Exponential Growth: Sissi Wang: Purpose-driven, conscious organizations leveraging exponential technology can profoundly impact human potential and global collaboration.
Peter Lucas Jones | Māori Data Sovereignty & Language Revitalization: How a Māori Radio Station Became an AI Pioneer While Protecting Ancient Knowledge
Dr. Suzanne Gildert, a physicist and AI researcher in Vancouver, recently launched Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, focusing on integrating consciousness into AI systems to make them more intuitive, empathetic, and aligned with human values.
Featuring insights from BC’s leading AI labs and industry pioneers, this talk is a must-watch for creatives, technologists, policymakers, and anyone curious about the coming age of human-machine collaboration.
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