Vancouver AI Pods

This historic episode captures Vancouver AI's biggest event yet: the debut of the First Annual AI Film Festival and the grand finale of the eight-month Rival Technologies Data Storytelling Hackathon. Hear from Hollywood VFX legends who created Gollum for Lord of the Rings, professional animators producing studio-quality work in 3 days for $100, and an 18-year-old who placed second in all four hackathon rounds while maintaining valedictorian status.The episode opens with a powerful Squamish Nation blessing from newly elected Counselors Anthony Joseph and Johnny Williams, grounding the community in indigenous protocol before diving into the transformation of creative industries through AI.Warning: This episode contains frank discussions about industry displacement, ethical debates about training data, and strong language about IP rights.-------Standout QuotesOn Ceremony & Time"Time is our greatest asset, and that's the one thing you can't get back no matter where you spend it." — Anthony Joseph, Squamish Nation Counselor"When Anthony and Johnny comes up every month and starts singing, I know everything that happens next is gonna be okay. We're here. We made it, we're in the right place." — Kris KrugOn Creative Transformation"It's like having a co-director that is really weird and just does random shit. But like, cool weird. 90% of the time it's unusable. But 10% of the time you get some real gold." — Luke, Animation Director"As you go into the unknown and make a human contribution, you carry it from just being a cliche into something unique, original and compelling." — Bay Rate, VFX Legend"For creative-minded people, it's not a lottery or slot machine anymore pulling and getting a result. Now it's more like you have control over everything you wanna build." — Tim, VFX CompositorOn Musicians & Technology"My punk rock heart wants everything to be strictly human. But musicians haven't even totally accepted synthesizers yet, and those are from the sixties. There's room for it. Technology isn't bad, it's just the way you use it." — Darby YuOn Youth & Vibe Coding"I like coding and vibe coding in general, just building these kinds of products. It's kind of my jam. Even though it feels like I'm sacrificing my time, I really, really enjoy building them." — Prajwal, 18-year-old Hall of Fame WinnerOn Industry Change"Those people that were cogs in the storytelling wheel are getting to have bigger ownership of stories now. I think there's a really amazing opportunity to take the existing skill sets and experiences we all have and convert into vibrant multiple pegs of the economy with unbeatable IP." — Kevin FrielOn Indigenous Voices"Because we can create things for so much cheaper and gatekeepers have traditionally been white male, this is an opportunity to highlight underrepresented voices in a way that was just impossible before." — LukeOn AI Control"It's about controlling AI, not using it. If you control your money, you'll have great life. If you lose control of your money, you'll have bad situation. Same with AI." — Karu, ByteDanceOn Ethics (Radical Take)"There is no way to train ethically trained models. That's bullshit. I think we have to give up the idea of IP and trademark to ever enter the true age of AI." — Audience Member

From Classrooms to Clinics: How Surrey AI is Building BC's AI FutureJoin Matthew Schwartzman and the Surrey AI community for Meetup #8, where healthcare founders, managed IT operators, photographers, students, and infrastructure builders gathered to share what's actually working with AI in their businesses and lives.This isn't another hype cycle conversation. It's students explaining how they're using AI when teachers can't teach clearly. It's a life sciences investor breaking down why "do your reg first" could save your startup millions. It's a photographer revealing why magazines are rejecting AI-generated images. It's an IT manager showing how AI email triage reclaims an hour daily.From FDA approval pathways to Chinese LLM alternatives, from GPU procurement nightmares to the future of persistent AI tutors, this 90-minute session captures the messy, practical, exciting reality of AI adoption across sectors.Featuring perspectives from:Matthew Schwartzman & Cousin Itamar - Host & Surrey AI community architectPaul Rex - Life sciences & medical device AI strategistDarren - Managed IT services operator using AI at scaleMichelle Diamond - Professional photographer on authenticity vs. syntheticKris - Educator using transcripts to analyze coaching patternsDean Shev - Infrastructure builder on data sovereignty & multi-model researchAliza & Noa - Students showing how Gen Z actually uses AI for learningPlus insights on BC's data center expansion, the BC AI Task Force consultation, biosimilars, compliance monitoring, wearable sensors, and why community-driven learning beats closed-door innovation.Part of the BC + AI Ecosystem Association----------ABOUT SURREY AI COMMUNITY MEETUPSurrey AI Community Meetup is part of the BC AI Ecosystem Association, bringing together diverse practitioners from education, healthcare, business, creative services, and infrastructure to share real-world AI implementations, failures, and successes.Unlike typical tech meetups focused on demos and pitches, Surrey AI prioritizes cross-industry learning, practical wisdom, and community-driven innovation. With weekly office hours, coworking sessions, and specialized sub-groups, the community creates compounding learning loops that accelerate responsible AI adoption across British Columbia.Core Values:Augmentation over replacementRegulation-first roadmappingMulti-model approachesAuthentic human servicesEducational equityData sovereigntyHuman-in-the-loop accountabilityCommunity-driven learningJoin us for Meetup #9 and become part of BC's most diverse AI community.

What happens when you merge 10,000-year-old Indigenous knowledge with cutting-edge AI? In this groundbreaking September 2025 meetup, the Vancouver AI Community explores radical alternatives to Silicon Valley's vision of artificial intelligence.----------------------Join BC + AI Ecosystem Association: https://bc-ai.ca/membership/----------------------Vancouver AI Community Meetup #21: Indigenous AI, Plant Communication & The Future That Doesn't Look Like Silicon ValleyJohnny Williams from the Squamish Nation opens with traditional ceremony and shares how AI transforms him from document parser to cultural advisor—one of only 60-70 Squamish language speakers using AI to protect cultural heritage. Artist Manuel Axel Strain presents a revolutionary vision: building AI systems to interpret plant communication and enable actual dialogue with forests.This isn't your typical tech conference. Against the backdrop of Vancouver's booming AI week, 150+ community members gather at HR MacMillan Space Centre to explore what AI becomes when grounded in Indigenous wisdom, ecological consciousness, and community values. From a $20,000 ByteDance hackathon announcement to the launch of BC's AI Discord, this episode captures a pivotal moment where technology meets traditional knowledge.Features Dave Olson's wisdom from Japan on archiving and kindness, the Mind AI & Consciousness group exploring quantum computing and consciousness, and practical discussions on data sovereignty, ethical AI development, and what it means to build technology that honors rather than extracts.----------------------Extended Show NotesOpening & Context (0:00-5:00)Johnny Williams: AI as Cultural Preservation (5:00-15:00)Dave Olson from Japan: Archive Everything (15:00-20:00)Community Infrastructure & Announcements (20:00-35:00)Mind AI & Consciousness Group Update (35:00-40:00)Manuel Axel Strain: Indigenous AI & Plant Communication (40:00-65:00)Technical Implementation & Partnerships (65:00-75:00)Community Growth & Next Steps (75:00-85:00)Closing Thoughts (85:00-90:00)----------------------Key QuotesJonny Williams: "AI allowed me to go from being a document parser to being a cultural advisor. I'm one of the only people that speaks the language left on this planet."Dave Olson: "Always be archiving 'cause the internet has a very short memory. Always be kind 'cause you never know who you're gonna meet on your journey."Manuel Axel Strain: "We all descend from the sky... we all came from this single cell that first started."Kris Krug: "AI doesn't have to look like Silicon Valley. It doesn't have to look like Mark Zuckerberg. It can look like Johnny Williams. It can look like Uncle Weed."Tags#IndigenousAI #PlantCommunication #VancouverTech #AIEthics #CulturalPreservation #SquamishNation #GenerativeAI #CommunityTech #DataSovereignty #QuantumConsciousness #AIFilm #BCTech #Decolonization #BioCommunication #TechActivism #IndigenousKnowledge #CreativeAI #PlantIntelligence #AIConsciousness #TechCommunity

Vancouver AI Community Meetup #20 — land, love, learning, and launch. Featuring Love Now Media’s Jos Duncan on AI ethics & advocacy, Peter Bitner on the future of work, and Rival’s data storytelling hackathon winners. Plus: BC + AI Ecosystem Association launch, Ethos Lab AI.EDU, Surrey AI, and SIGGRAPH demos.Join BC + AI: https://bc-ai.ca/membership/----------------------Welcome to Vancouver AI Community Meetup #20... a night grounded in place and propelled by purpose.Opening & Land We gathered in the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, welcomed by Gabriel George Sr, with story and Eagle song.Keynote: Love Now Media Jos Duncan (Philadelphia) shares a values-led path for love & AI: transparent AI use, mission-aligned ethics policies, and a new AI Advocacy Initiative to reduce harms (IP, environment, labor) and uplift what’s working.Future of Work:The Upgrade Peter Bitner (upgrade.ai) on upskilling as the bottleneck, AI literacy frameworks, and building cultures where experimentation + critical thinking thrive.Rival Technologies AI Data Storytelling Hackathon • Prajwal Prasanth: “semantic maps + roundtable voices” that let clusters debate each other. • Sev Geraskin (Bear × Bunny) — AGI Data Interface: choose-your-own-adventure insights with dynamic viz and narration (Hall of Fame inductee). • Dean Shev (aka Chazzz) — full album generated from BC AI survey + meetup transcripts; 17 tracks turning community data into music.Community Launch Introducing the BC + AI Ecosystem Association (BC + AI) — a nonprofit container for meetups, hackathons, EDU, creative industries, public sector collabs, and more. Join, contribute, and help shape an ethical, inclusive AI future in BC.AI.EDU & Sub-Communities • Ethos Lab — youth AI experimentation (Grades 8–12) + EDU meetup. • Surrey AI — hands-on monthly sessions (games, “AI or Not?” challenges). • SIGGRAPH Snaps — community demos incl. John Mutter (gen-video compositing) and Ahmed (Creative: no-code, multi-platform game engine).Join BC + AI and AI meetup ecosystem. • Check out Rival/Reach3 data sets and demo projects. Subscribe for talks, hackathon showcases, and ethical AI resources.

A guided AI‑powered meditation, hackathon unveil & 52‑startups wisdom inside Vancouver’s thriving grassroots scene.----------------------Join BC + AI Ecosystem Association: https://bc-ai.ca/membership/----------------------Mission 19 is a full‑body resonance test for what happens when code, consciousness, and community hold hands:Land acknowledgment with gratitude to the Squamish NationScholarship tickets + hydration thanks to Kassandra LinklateSIGGRAPH 2025 side‑events roadmap — 100 + RSVPsHackathon 3.0 → unveiling the 1 000‑response “BC AI Hopes & Fears” datasetGuided meditation by Peter BowlesAI Ethics short‑film demoAI Film Club launch (Sept)Keynote: Michael Yagudaev on building 52 startups in 52 weeks with agentic coding workflowsProvincial AI Strategy survey call‑to‑action from FaridClosing ritual: donuts, night‑sky viewing,Mission 20 teaserLinksBC + AI Adoption Survey - https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/engagement/ai-adoption-in-bc/Hackathon dataset repoSIGGRAPH side‑event RSVPCreditsHost/Producer Kris KrügMeditation & Music Peter BowlesVideo Kevin FrielField Video Viktor SerbinPhotos Michelle DiamondVenue H.R. MacMillan Space CentreSponsors Segev LLPSons of VancouverDimitri Schwartzman

2 hours & change under the Space Centre dome served up a living syllabus on what community‑driven AI looks like in BC:Protocol First. Kris Krüg cracked open the night with land acknowledgement and cedar‑smoked gratitude. Gabriel George (Tsleil‑Waututh) followed with drum and story, situating every byte of the evening inside relationships, not extractive transactions.Radical Hospitality. BBQ, buns, and Bundaberg in the atrium weren’t filler—they showed that tech culture can (and should) smell like charcoal and community, not neon and FOMO.Street‑Level Lightning Talks. Founders, artists, and neighbourhood organisers took the mic: whiskey‑maker James Lester on stubborn craft, Alvero on creative risk, a Surrey AI crew on suburban maker culture, Liam & Kemp with a dream‑to‑Roblox pipeline, and Noah on dragging legacy enterprises into the age of ML.Security Reality Check. Morton Rand‑Hendriksen detonated password complacency with his Minimum Content Password (MCP) framework and a 2‑billion‑credential leak demo. Take‑home: usability is a security requirement, and AI will sit at that negotiating table whether you invite it or not.Live Demos & Community Awards. Steve's Canadian Identity Simulator, a massive novelty cheque for hackathon winners, and spontaneous open‑mic hacks closed the loop between ceremony and code.Result: a mash‑up where Indigenous futurism, neighbourhood BBQ logistics, and bleeding‑edge infosec policy felt like parts of the same conversation—because here, they are.---⏱️ Full‑Night Timestamp Map (hh:mm)00:00 — Welcome, BBQ notes & land acknowledgement01:00 — Gabriel George drum song & story10:00 — Reflections on protocol, lineage & “spirit‑tech”12:00 — Shout‑outs to the grill squad15:00 — Sponsor gratitude (SEGEV, Space Centre, Schwartzman)17:30 — James Lester → Whiskey, resilience & cosmic persistence19:00 — Alvero on creative scars + startup survival22:00 — James TED‑style closer: persistence > brilliance25:00 — Mark Busse → Creative Mornings & radical human presence29:00 — Surrey AI meetup report33:00 — Liam & Kemp: Generative Dream‑to‑Roblox pipeline35:00 — Noah: Change‑management in enterprise AI48:00 — Open‑mic hacks & giant‑cheque prizes60:00 — Canadian identity demo71:00 — Awards photo‑op + kitschy swag toss73:00 — Morton Rand‑Hendriksen intro – MCP & end of passwords88:00 — MCP keynote: security, biometrics, agency108:00 — Q&A: kids hacking Alexa, civic responsibility, trust fabrics111:00 — Kris: “Build the future—that is the job”130:00 — Community survey methods134:00 — Sneak peek: member portal & sovereign compute stack136:00 — Closing gratitude + next meetup drop (July 30)(Total runtime ≈ 2 h 16 m)---MENTIONSVancouver AI Community: lu.ma/vancouver-aiSons of Vancouver: sonsofvancouver.caHR MacMillan Space Centre: spacecentre.caGabriel George Sr: tsleil-waututh.ca

While Web Summit suits pitched "AI solutions," we gathered in a planetarium to witness actual humans using AI to solve real problems. Gabriel using custom GPTs for his council campaign, Carol Anne feeding colonial legislation to AI and diagnosing systematic tomfuckery, Kevin building Hollywood-grade first alien contact footage for $10000.This is revolution built by people who give a fuck.The Real OpeningGabriel George Sr brought ceremony. His people went from 10,000 to dozens through European diseases. Four fluent Halkomelem speakers remain across 10,000 Coast Salish people. We're building AI that amplifies his voice—his "six pillars" became "house posts" because words carry worlds.Global PerspectiveVipul Kansal flew 37 hours from India. His $500M company makes AI shoes, but he talked about finding a rural family business where three generations refuse other brands because "it's in our blood." His success metric: growing from 5,000 to 10,000 employees because prosperity means more families fed.Technical FireKushal Goenka exposed why search still sucks: we built the future on a lie. The open web became a private index. Reddit sells our conversations to OpenAI for $60M while we can't access our own contributions. Aaron Swartz died fighting this battle.Indigenous AI JusticeCarol Anne Hilton fed the Indian Act into AI, personified it, then ran diagnostics. Result: severely disturbed individual exhibiting systematic abuse patterns. Her Indigenomics Institute found a $200B Indigenous economy GDP calculations miss. "Economy as ceremony"—technology serving cultural values.Creative DestructionKevin Friel built complete alien first-contact news in 2.5 days using VO3. Traditional cost: $100,000, three months. His cost: $10,000, two days. Tools evolving monthly—adapt or die.What We're BuildingFifty-five core memberships. Constituency building. Launched BC + AI Ecosystem Industry Association. Subgroups spawning subgroups. Distributed leadership, no guru dependency.The ChallengeEvery successful alternative gets co-opted. Open web became private. Social platforms became extraction machines. How do we build something that can't be absorbed?Answer isn't in code—it's in culture. Gabriel's ceremony, Carol Anne's values, monthly gathering grounding technology in relationship.Revolution will be distributed, polite because we're Canadian, but not corporate.Keep building. Keep gathering. Keep ceremony alive.Next meetup: Last Wednesday monthly | Core membership: vancouver.bc-ai.netSponsors: Dmitri Sportsman Real Estate, SEGEV Law, Sons of Vancouver Distillery, Michelle Diamond Photography, Victor Serbin Documentary Spotlights, Philippe Pasquier MetaCreation Lab, MötleyKrüg Media, TheUpgrade.ai, Creative Mornings VancouverThe future belongs to people who show up.

This episode captures an unfiltered night inside the Vancouver AI community—where analog gear hums alongside AI-generated visuals, and Indigenous songs echo through a room full of technologists, artists, and systems thinkers. This is the sound of a grassroots AI ecosystem growing in real time.It’s less a conference and more a convergence. A gathering of those building tools, telling stories, and raising essential questions about what kind of intelligence we want to build and who gets to shape it.Episode HighlightsOJA, the AI Band — Combining hand-built synths and generative visuals, the group shares how AI helped translate code into collaborative audiovisual performance.Damien George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation — Offers a powerful welcome, history, and song rooted in this territory. A reminder that this is not neutral ground, and that memory and ceremony are part of technological futures.Mind, AI & Consciousness Group Launch — A new working group exploring questions around consciousness and machine intelligence, emerging from this community and led by Loki Jorgenson.Community Announcements — Projects growing from the roots: a Women in AI series, a Surrey meetup, an AI-powered emotional health video lab, and the formation of a member-led AI association.Mr. Canada Premiere — An AI-generated satirical series that blends geopolitics, song, and synthetic imagery to provoke discussion about civic identity and digital propaganda.Workshops & Microcredentials — SFU’s Philippe Pasquier announces open-access AI workshops, local model training sessions, and new microcredential pathways for lifelong learners and creators.Zen and the Future of AI — Ian Waugh, a Zen priest and CTO, offers a model for how emotional responses in AI might evolve if embodied, and what we can learn from our own interruptions.Closing Reflections from the Floor — From Myra to DeepSeek, a debate unfolds over open source, security, and institutional power. Community members speak candidly about how AI policy intersects with politics, privacy, and perception.Major ThreadsEmergence over Management — New groups, themes, and relationships are forming through participation, not planning. This isn’t a program—it’s a process.Decentralized Culture — From community libraries to donation-based infrastructure, the Vancouver AI movement is building its own operating system—resourceful, improvisational, and community-owned.Territorial Intelligence — Indigenous knowledge and presence aren’t an add-on—they are part of the core logic of how this community operates.Open Source Tension — Debates around DeepSeek, security, and institutional censorship highlight the ongoing friction between open models and closed systems, especially in academic contexts.Calls to ActionJoin or start a local AI meetup—Women in AI, Squamish AI, Surrey AI, and more are forming.Add a book to the AI community library. Share what shaped your thinking.Participate in the Rival Technologies x BCAI Hackathon — apply your tools or storytelling instincts to real data.Volunteer, build infrastructure, or contribute to community-led experiments. It's not about perfection. It's about participation.ContextThis event was recorded at a Vancouver AI community gathering hosted at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and curated by The Upgrade Academy. It represents a slice of the larger BC + AI ecosystem—a unique zone where creative tech, grassroots values, and critical inquiry intersect.

Post-Interface Culture, Fungal Code & the Sandwich TribunalWelcome to the living archive of Vancouver AI Meetup #16—recorded in a round room built like a woven hat, vibrating with ceremony, creativity, and code. This isn’t a recap. It’s an artifact.🧠 The Night in Signals:• Code as Paint, Code as Portal An ex-engineer turned software artist breaks open the idea of creative coding as ecological interface. Think: 3D mushrooms instead of static field guides. Not “apps”—living systems.• Document Everything, Especially the Rituals Our community’s unofficial archivist has been capturing every meetup, reel by reel. No hype. Just memory. What doesn’t get documented gets erased. This is how resistance gets remembered.• AI Grounded in Land, Story & Ceremony The night opened not with a keynote but with a drum. An elder shared sound and story, tying our tech rituals to place and kin. The room resonated with more than just electricity.• Field-Notes from the Edge of AI Culture A researcher shared a new study chronicling how grassroots AI communities are self-organizing—not waiting for institutions to catch up. The themes? Mutual aid, obsessive documentation, values over velocity.• Governance Isn't a Buzzword, It’s a Battlefield New organizers are convening a summit on AI ethics and governance. Less about frameworks, more about power mapping. The questions aren’t theoretical: Who decides? Who benefits?• Subcultures as Infrastructure Spinoff meetups are forming like mycelium—women-led nodes, philosophical deep dives, pedagogical experiments, satellite groups from the suburbs to the margins. This is growth by propagation, not scale.• Hackathon, but Make it Absurd The first round of a new storytelling hackathon used public opinion data to ask serious questions disguised as food fights. Is a hot dog a sandwich? Is cereal soup? One entry turned survey data into a full-blown courtroom comic. Another built a multi-agent visualization platform that made the absurd look transcendent.• Small Data, Big Resonance An experimental lab previewed tools built not on surveillance-scale AI, but on localized, artist-built, micro-models. Sonic agents. Generative instruments. This is AI as co-creator, not colonizer.• Interface is Dead. Long Live Interface The closing keynote made it plain: we’re past chat. Right-clicks are becoming actions. Filters are becoming conversations. The future interface is ambient, assistive, adaptive—and totally invisible until you need it.THE THREAD THROUGH IT ALLThis is not a meetup series. It’s a counterculture.Rooted in land.Documented like folklore.Built by people, not platforms.Run on open source, values, and straight-up stubbornness.The theme of the night wasn’t AI. It was agency.Not artificial. Not delegated. Lived. Distributed. In motion.Hit play. This is your dispatch from the edge. And if you’re not part of it yet, you’re already late.

Hey, it's Kris Krug here, welcoming you to a very special episode of my podcast, '47 & Unfiltered'. This isn't your typical broadcast; I'm taking you with me into my favorite thinking space – my bathtub. As I turn 47, join me for an intimate, reflective, and raw conversation right from my tub.We're diving into everything from my life lessons and future visions to my experiences at the 'Dent the Future' event in Maui and my work with the Google News Initiative. I'll share insights from my journey into the world of AI and media, my aspirations for MØTLEYKRÜG Media, and the upcoming FATALE Festival. It's about community building, creative evolution, and pushing boundaries.So, grab your coffee (or a bathrobe!), and let's get soaked in some deep thoughts and laughter. Here's to another year of living unapologetically and building something truly transformative. Let's make a splash together!Shownotes:Introduction (00:00): Kris Krug kicks off the episode from his bathtub, sharing why this space is his sanctuary for thought and creativity.Reflecting at 47 (02:30): KK reflects on turning 47, discussing the blend of feeling the weight of the number and the invigorating sense of being at his best.Dent the Future and AI Ventures (06:45): Insights from the 'Dent the Future' event in Maui, brainstorming on AI events, and community collaboration.Volunteering in Maui (12:10): Kris’s eye-opening experience at the FEMA volunteer Dispatch Center during the Lahaina fires, and the complexities of community aid.Perspectives on Home and Loss (16:25): Discussing the dichotomy of loss between residents and vacationers in Hawaii and the nuances of community support.Life at the Ritz vs. Banana Bungalow (21:40): Comparing experiences from the luxurious Ritz Carlton to the humbling Banana Bungalow.Google News Initiative and New Ventures (27:15): KK talks about his final pitch with Google News Initiative and the birth of MØTLEYKRÜG Media.Launching FATALE Festival (33:00): The vision and plans for the upcoming FATALE Festival in Vancouver.The Future-Proof Creatives Workshop Series (38:50): Announcing new AI training workshops aimed at empowering creative professionals.Collaborations and Connections (44:20): Shoutouts to influential mentors, peers, and exciting upcoming projects and events.Incorporating MØTLEYKRÜG Media (49:55): Discussing the formal setup of MØTLEYKRÜG Media and future goals.Closing Thoughts (55:10): Kris wraps up with personal reflections, gratitude, and a look into the future of his ventures.Links and References:Dent the FutureGoogle News InitiativeFATALE FestivalBanana Bungalow Maui HostelMØTLEYKRÜG MediaFuture-Proof Creatives Workshop Series