Wednesday, May 6, 2026 · 6:30 PM · Parker Street Studios · Vancouver
WHAT WE'VE BUILT SO FAR
Four months ago, AEFL was a WhatsApp group and an idea. Now it's 30+ 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 — Parker Street Studios. Jesi Carson, design researcher with 15 years facilitating democratic processes, volunteered to run 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" (Teresa Scassa's words). Task force was industry-weighted. Survey questions were biased. Government used four LLMs to analyze 11,000+ submissions with zero transparency. Civil society responded with the People's Consultation—an ongoing, open process. 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.
WHAT WE'RE DOING MAY 6
This is a working session. Bring your laptop.
Not everyone's plugged into the WhatsApp. Not everyone knows where the Notion lives. We're fixing that. If you're already set up, help someone else get there. Community builds community.
Jesi and I have been talking about what AEFL could become. One thing that came up: "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.
What topics should we cover? Who should we invite? What should AEFL actually do as a group? Your input shapes this.
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.