AI Ethical Futures Lab #3
Four months ago, AEFL was a WhatsApp group and an idea. Now it's 80+ people having real conversations about where AI is taking us, and what we're going to do about it.
February 4: First gathering. 25 people in a room at Parker Street Studios. No agenda beyond "let's see who shows up." Turns out a lot of people had been waiting for this conversation.
March 4: Jesi Carson, design researcher with 15 years facilitating democratic processes, ran a People's AI Consultation workshop. Background: 160+ civil society organizations had signed an open letter calling out Canada's federal AI consultation as a "mad rush to a largely predetermined conclusion." Task force was industry-weighted. Survey questions were biased. Government used four LLMs to analyze 11,000+ submissions with zero transparency. Civil society responded. We did BC's part that night, small groups, clipboards, sharpies. Jesi's reasoning: "AI is very techy, but we need to be here in this space together. Let's do this with our hands, looking each other in the eye."
April 1: Discussion circle on AI and creative work. Who owns what when machines learn from everything? Artists, technologists, lawyers, educators in one room wrestling with consent, style reproducibility, digital fingerprints.
May 6: This one. Bring your laptop.
What We're Doing May 6
This is a working session. Three things, in this order:
1. Community Onboarding (30 min)
Not everyone's on all the channels. We'll get you set up:
WhatsApp group: where the daily conversation happens
Notion workspace: our shared brain, reading list, resources, meeting notes
BC + AI ecosystem: how AEFL connects to the broader community
If you're already plugged in, help onboard someone who isn't. Community builds community.
2. Mapping the Ethical AI Landscape (60 min)
Jesi and I have been talking about what AEFL could become. One thing kept surfacing:
"Wouldn't it be neat to have our scanners on collectively for places where we should show up to make our voices heard?"
Problem is, we don't actually know who else is doing this work. Who's contesting AI harms? What movements should we be watching? Where are the policy openings? How does BC fit in the national conversation?
We're going to map it. Small groups, laptops open, real-time docs. By end of night we'll have a shared resource the whole community can use. This is activist infrastructure. We're building the scanner.
3. What's Next for AEFL (30 min)
Open discussion:
What topics should future meetups cover?
Who should we invite as speakers?
What should AEFL actually do as a group?
Your input shapes where this goes.
The AEFL Approach
We hold both hands full.
You can be into what AI makes possible and hold serious concerns about where it's headed. That's not a contradiction. That's paying attention. MAC (Mind, AI & Consciousness) goes deep on philosophical reading lists and long-horizon questions. AEFL is more action-oriented: policy engagement, community organizing, figuring out where to show up.
As Jesi put it during our March workshop: "This is going to help us baseline the community, but it will also give us a framework to do some collaborative thinking and storytelling and listening to each other."
That's the work.
Who Should Come
Already active: you've been in the WhatsApp, ready to collaborate
Curious but not yet connected: perfect entry point; we're doing onboarding anyway
Researchers: you know how to dig things up; help us build the map
Activists & organizers: you've got context on movements we should know
Anyone who cares about ethical AI and wants to do something about it
Bring a laptop. Charged. This is a working session.
Details
Not a member? Join BC + AI.
House Rules
Laptops welcome: this is a working session
Chatham House: share ideas freely, don't attribute without permission
Help each other: if you know something, teach it
Build in public: what we create gets shared with the community
Hosts
Kris Krüg: Executive Director, BC + AI. Been building Vancouver's AI community since 2023. Believe you can be excited about what AI makes possible and deeply concerned about where it's headed at the same time.
Jesi Carson: Design researcher, Participedia, Design Nerds. 15 years facilitating collaborative processes and documenting democratic innovations. Ran the March consultation workshop and helped shape what AEFL is becoming.
Links
See you at Parker Street.
Kris & Jesi