The Factory[via Lx7.ca]
An AI makerspace for musing & collaboration.
Sovereign compute on Vancouver Island.
Open Source Only
Run 70B-class open source models in memory. No quantization. No compromise.
Privacy First
Your prompts never leave the island. No logging. No training on your data.
No Token Counting
Use what you need without limits. Saturate the bandwidth? We'll notice & manage.
Community Governed
Members vote on the main model each quarter. Your compute, your choice.
Why The Factory?
Modern AI has been captured by giant, faceless data centers. We're taking it back.
Think of this place as that local makerspace, but for intelligence. One where something-like that CNC router which costs $50k and sits idle 90% of the time. No, you wouldn't buy one for your garage. But you'd happily pay monthly dues to share one with other serious makers.
We're building that, as a group of like minded creatives. The Factory like a makerspace for the mind, focused on AI compute. It's shared access to expensive tools. Curated membership. And a community of practitioners who learn from each other.
The Sovereignty Thesis
The next decade belongs to those who own their compute. Cloud APIs are convenient, but they're also subject to rate limits, policy changes, and data extraction. This project is a reaction to those trends. The Factory offers an exit.
The Platform
Here's what we're building:
- Open Source Only: We run open source models exclusively
- Main Model: One community-chosen 70B model, loaded for the quarter
- Guest Model: A rotating smaller model for experimentation
- Membership: Curated membership access via web, mobile app and API
- Data: Conversation & text artifacts stored locally. No data extraction.
- Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Who's Behind This?
The Factory is part of a larger platform of reimagining creative tools in the modern age. As part of the Lx7.ca, it's the digital studio for creating new works of art with AI as a collaborator and not as a set of tools. With a goal of exploring sovereign technology, creative tools, and community infrastructure.
This project sits at the intersection of infrastructure, community design, and AI tooling. If you're curious about the thinking behind it, explore some Strategy blog posts from Humanjava Enterprises. Or if you're looking to connect with the principal builder, hit up @vveerrgg on X. Vergel has 12+ years in UX consulting helping teams build better products.