Fireweed AI just got back from WebSummit LLC Vancouver, where our team ran an Alpha booth on the floor, a young Indigenous-led sovereign AI company from Whitehorse, in a room with founders, investors, and builders from across Canada and around the world.

The conversations went deep. Not surface-level interest in AI. Real engagement with what sovereignty actually means when you're building infrastructure for First Nations governments and Canadian institutions. Honest discussions about Indigenous data and who it should serve. Hard questions about cultural perspective in AI, and what's at stake when our communities aren't in the room while these systems get built. Quiet conversations about Canadian sovereignty more broadly, and what it means to build infrastructure that's actually ours.

What we'll share is this: the principles Fireweed AI was built on, keeping data on the land, keeping authority in the hands of the communities we serve, didn't need explaining. The category is forming faster than even we expected.

As well, a huge thank-you to Tech Yukon for making this possible. Eight Yukon companies represented the territory on the floor this year, each building something different, each proof that real innovation doesn't only happen in the obvious places. We're proud to have been part of that delegation, and proud of every Yukon team that showed up.

And to the Indigenous Tech Circle community, thank you for the gathering. None of us are doing this work alone.