Vancouver Centre for AI Safety, Sustainability, and Ethics (VCASSE)

VCASSE is Vancouver's dedicated centre for responsible artificial intelligence.
We exist to make sure Vancouver is not only a participant in the AI conversation, but helping lead it.

We research, educate, and advocate across three pillars: safety, sustainability, and ethics. AI is moving fast, and the people it affects most deserve a seat at the table.

Mission

To advance AI literacy, inform policy, and promote the safe, sustainable, and ethical development of artificial intelligence across Vancouver.

Vision

A Vancouver where safety, sustainability, and ethics are at the centre of every AI decision, and where every resident has the literacy to hold that standard.

Values

• Safety first. AI should be developed and used in ways that protect people, communities, and the natural world, not just today, but for future generations.
• Sustainability always. The environmental cost of AI, from data centre energy consumption to water usage in model training, is too often ignored. We bring it to the table every time.
• Ethics without exception. The question is not just "can we build this?" but "should we?" We hold corporations, developers, and ourselves accountable to that standard.
• Transparency by default. Our research, positions, and reasoning are open. If we ask others to be accountable, we start with ourselves.
• Community-rooted. We are a Vancouver organization serving Vancouver first. National and global relevance follows from local depth, not the other way around.

The Three Pillars

Pillar 1: Safety

AI safety is not only a concern for major labs. It is a concern for everyone who interacts with AI, which is increasingly everyone.

Focus areas:

• Responsible development practices that prioritize long-term wellbeing over speed to market
• Research on keeping AI systems safe, legal, and socially responsible at a pace that does not compromise future generations
• Public literacy on what "safe AI" means and what consumers should demand from AI providers

Pillar 2: Sustainability

Sustainability in AI has been overlooked for too long. Data centres consume substantial energy and water, and model training has measurable carbon impact.

Focus areas:

• Environmental impact research across energy, water, and carbon in AI infrastructure and model training
• Public education on the real ecological costs of AI systems
• Advocacy for AI efficiency standards, because responsibly trained models can still be highly capable

Pillar 3: Ethics

Ethics is where the hard questions live: not only "can we do this?" but "what happens when we do?"

Focus areas:

• Ethical boundaries of AI applications (deepfakes, surveillance, algorithmic bias, and more)
• Corporate accountability for deployment decisions
• Public positions and policy recommendations for ethical grey areas

Safety and ethics are distinct and complementary:

• Safety asks whether a system is built responsibly.
• Ethics asks whether it should exist at all, and under what conditions.

Core Programs

• Policy briefs: Research-backed briefs for municipal and provincial government so decisions on regulation, funding, and services are evidence-based.
• Community forums and public panels: Multi-stakeholder discussions that include researchers, developers, policymakers, and community members.
• Vancouver AI literacy programs: Local education on how AI works and how it affects privacy, employment, environment, and daily life.

Who We Serve

• The general public
• Youth and students
• Tech companies and developers
• Policymakers and government

Affiliation

VCASSE operates as a subsidiary program of Oasis of Change, Inc., a federal not-for-profit corporation based in Vancouver, BC.