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Event: AI Ethical Futures Lab #4

Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Time: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM PDT

Location: Parker Street Studios Vancouver British Columbia CA Vancouver, BC Parker Street Studios, 1000 Parker St, Vancouver, BC V6A 4B9, Canada ChIJWRsf-mpxhlQRPiYdPusXO-M

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Canada’s new federal AI strategy is expected this week.

It probably will not look dramatic. Government strategy documents rarely do. They arrive with tidy headings, careful language, and a lot of words that sound reasonable.

But this is where things start to move.

Funding starts to move. Policy starts to move. Procurement starts to move. The official story starts to get written.

So this month’s AI Ethical Futures Lab has a live edge to it.

We are not gathering to cheerlead the strategy or dunk on it before reading it. We are gathering because BC needs people paying attention while the national AI conversation turns into programs, rules, budgets, and defaults.

The federal frame is expected to touch safety, skills, adoption, sovereignty, Canadian companies, and global partnerships.

Fine. Good. Let’s read it properly.

What does it leave out? Who is it written for? Where does BC show up? Where do artists, workers, educators, small businesses, Indigenous communities, youth, and public-interest groups show up? What gets called “innovation” when it is really just risk being moved onto someone else?

You do not need to be a policy person.

You do not need to arrive with a finished argument.

Bring your attention. Bring your questions. Bring whatever part of you does not want this whole thing decided by vendors, consultants, and Ottawa PDFs.

Links for the Room

A few links worth having open before Wednesday: the federal frame, the consultation record, a civil-society response, and the BC + AI places to keep working after the event.

BC + AI policy cards on ethical AI, sovereignty, literacy, data governance, clean energy, and community compute.
BC + AI policy cards on open innovation and public-interest procurement.


Recent AI Ethical Futures Lab Photos

A few photos from recent lab gatherings: small rooms, real questions, and people doing the work before policy turns into defaults.

People seated in a discussion circle at an AI Ethical Futures Lab meetup.
Discussion circle at a recent AI Ethical Futures Lab gathering.
AI Ethical Futures Lab speakers and attendees in conversation.
Speakers and attendees in conversation.
AI Ethical Futures Lab attendees gathered after a meetup.
Community members after the meetup.


What We’re Building

The AI Ethical Futures Lab is a community-driven initiative within the BC + AI Ecosystem, dedicated to fostering responsible AI development through collaborative research, policy engagement, ethical framework development, and, above all, open discourse.

BC + AI ethical futures open innovation graphic

We bridge the gap between AI innovation and ethical consideration, ensuring British Columbia leads in building trustworthy, inclusive, and community-centered AI systems.

Our approach

Community-First Ethics: Ethical AI emerges from diverse voices, not corporate boardrooms. We put Indigenous knowledge systems, grassroots perspectives, and lived experiences front and centre.

Our policy-meets-practice philosophy translates ethical frameworks into actionable guidelines for developers, policymakers, and organizations implementing AI systems.

BC + AI public-interest procurement and sovereignty graphics

We champion open processes, clear accountability mechanisms, and inclusive decision-making from design to governance with human well-being the perpetual North Star.


About BC + AI Ecosystem Association

BC + AI is the province-wide layer: a community-driven, nonprofit industry association built to create public-interest infrastructure for AI in British Columbia.

Not a corporate lobby. Not a think tank. A commons where meetups turn into working groups, prototypes turn into shared tools, and community values turn into governance.

BC + AI ecosystem membership graphic

Vancouver AI was just the start. The ecosystem keeps growing across BC… Surrey, Comox Valley, Squamish, and beyond… each node bringing its own culture, needs, and experiments.

Join support: https://bc-ai.ca/membership