About us
Vancouver Curiosity Club is for people who want a social calendar with a brain.
Most months, this group has a mix of:
- philosophy and essay discussions
- podcast and YouTube discussion nights
- structured debates
- silent reading parties
- meditation and journaling circles
- gallery, museum, market, and city outings
- easy walks and mini-hikes
- Off-Radar Eats restaurant nights
The point is not networking. It is not small talk with name tags. It is a place to leave the house, meet thoughtful people, and do something more interesting than another default night out.
Some events are quiet and bookish. Some are argumentative. Some are just a good meal, a walk, or a cultural thing happening in the city. The common thread is curiosity, good taste, and people who actually want to be present.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raincouvereventsgroup/
Upcoming events
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A Model Too Capable to Release: Should AI Be Regulated, and How?
Vancouver Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, CAJoin us for a discussion on who should set the rules for artificial intelligence — and whether anyone can.
Details:
🗓️ Date: July 8th
🕐 Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
📍Location: Level 4 North Meeting Room (492)Resources:
It is not necessary to have technical knowledge to join the event! But, if you’re curious and would like to reflect ahead of time, you can check out the resources below:- Watch: Hank Green, "You Actually Do Need to Understand Mythos" (2026). youtube.com/watch?v=V6pgZKVcKpw
- Read an article: Dario Amodei, "Policy on the AI Exponential" (2026). darioamodei.com/post/policy-on-the-ai-exponential
Description:
In the span of a few years, AI systems have gone from producing barely coherent text to performing at expert level across coding, science, and security—and recent frontier models have demonstrated capabilities serious enough that their own developers have withheld them from public release and governments have begun treating them as matters of national security.The debate has shifted accordingly: not whether AI raises questions of public safety, but what, if anything, to do about it, by whom, and at what cost to innovation. We'll start from these concrete developments and let them carry us outward into the larger questions—what "regulating AI" would even mean, whether our existing models for governing powerful technologies fit, and who should hold the authority to decide.
If you'd like to prepare, you might watch Hank Green's You Actually Do Need to Understand Mythos, a general-audience explainer on zero-day vulnerabilities and other systemic risks that recent models have exposed, and/or read Dario Amodei's Policy on the AI Exponential, in which the head of a major AI company argues for binding regulation and lays out a specific proposal.
Note: In the text that follows, “AI” refers to Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT.
Discussion Questions:
- What do we actually mean by "regulating AI"? Like nuclear technology or GPS, frontier AI is dual-use. The same model that helps a biotech company discover new lifesaving drugs can be used to engineer biological weapons. Does this make AI meaningfully different from regulating other technologies, such as software?
- Frontier AI models are sometimes described metaphorically as “weapons” due to their potential impact. How appropriate is this analogy, and what does it reveal or distort about what an AI model is?
- Regulation is often said to lag behind technology. Is "regulation always lags" a reason to act preemptively, a reason to doubt regulation can keep up, or both—and how should that shape what we ask of it?
- In the Mythos case, the developer chose not to release the model and restricted access to a private coalition. Is voluntary corporate restraint a sound basis for public safety, or does it place too much trust in private judgment and incentives?
- In his blog post linked above, Dario Amodei argues that the recent development of models like Mythos has made the risks "undeniable," shifting him from favoring mere transparency to favoring mandatory testing and government power to block release. Is a developing technology's track record the right trigger for regulating it, and does waiting for risks to become undeniable come too late? Should models be banned until a proper regulatory framework is developed and adopted?
- When AI agents or robots powered by LLMs act directly in the physical world—such as self-driving cars, drones, or surgical robots—how should responsibility for harm be assigned, and does physical autonomy change what regulation must do?
11 attendees
Past events
141
