State of the BC + AI Economy

Vancouver’s tech scene has historically been quite scrappy and community-driven, and AI is no exception. There’s a vibe of collaboration here—people link up at meetups and hackathons, and there’s a real emphasis on sharing knowledge, code, and learnings rather than siloing them off.

This resonates strongly with my open source ethos: folks are open to co-creating, and you see a lot of small, passionate pockets of AI thinkers building tools and frameworks in public.

Because Vancouver is a creative hub—film, game dev, photography, VR/AR—there’s a special flavor to AI projects here. Researchers and startups often partner with artists and community builders, resulting in imaginative crossovers. From real-time rendering algorithms for film production to AR/VR frameworks for immersive education, Vancouver’s AI community isn’t afraid to venture into creative territory.

This merges nicely with my interests in photography, creative tech, and visual storytelling—AI here often has an eye towards design and user experience, not just raw data crunching.

Anchored by the likes of UBC, SFU, and Emily Carr, Vancouver’s AI ecosystem has solid academic underpinnings. You see tight bonds between universities and industry—labs like Borealis AI have popped up, and local accelerators (Creative Destruction Lab-West, for example) are spinning out AI companies with real global traction. My lens on this is: Vancouver’s big advantage is how small and connected we are.

When academia, industry, and the creative sector bump up against each other at local events or in collaborative research projects, fresh ideas surface quickly.

A big piece of my public commentary revolves around doing tech “the right way.” Vancouver’s broader environmental ethos and the presence of strong indigenous leadership push people to consider the social and ecological impacts of AI.

We’re seeing new projects that use machine learning for climate modeling, sustainable planning, or community mapping in indigenous territories—often driven by a desire for fairness, transparency, and respect for cultural contexts. For me, this is exactly the kind of direction we should be moving in: technology that doesn’t just chase profits but also supports equity and planetary resilience.

From code sprints to data-activist meetups, Vancouver fosters an open source spirit. Local groups share machine learning libraries, tutorial notebooks, and datasets aimed at tackling climate change, civic issues, or social innovations.

My commentary often highlights that this fosters quicker iteration, accountability, and wider community participation. It’s an antidote to the “black box” approach some big AI labs take. While Vancouver might not be the biggest AI center worldwide, it’s showing how open, community-led methods can yield dynamic results.

Despite the creativity and community spirit, Vancouver’s AI scene can struggle with scaling up. Funding sometimes lags behind other tech hubs, and there’s constant competition for AI talent—both from the Bay Area and across Canada.

But what I keep stressing in my public platforms: our relative size is also our strength. We can pivot more nimbly, cross-pollinate more easily, and align AI innovation with Vancouver’s strengths in sustainability, creative storytelling, and inclusivity. If we lean into those values, we’ll keep evolving into a unique, globally recognized AI hub.