An AI report to distract you from tariffs

By February 3, 2025
yoshua bengio
Plus: Shopify CEO promises 'buy local' features in Shop app.

The dumbest trade war in history has begun.

It’s early days, and when you play dumb games, you are apt to win dumb prizes, but I’m encouraged by the spine and toughness shown so far by my fellow Canadians. 

One might hope it wouldn’t require threats to our national sovereignty, but calls amongst Canadian tech to diversify trade, eliminate economic fragility, and be our own solution to procurement problems are welcome changes to the malaise of 2024. It takes a village to beat back a bully, I guess.

But I promised a distraction, so here it is: a major international report on AI safety was released this week, chaired by Canadian AI godfather Yoshua Bengio.

Focused on the risks of general-purpose AI, the report is notable for several reasons, including the fact that it’s already out of date: the majority of it was drafted before Open AI’s o3 model was released, demonstrating breakthroughs in abstract reasoning that Bengio himself thought were out of reach.

The difficulty of keeping up with AI permeates the 298-page report, which notes the pace and unpredictability of AI advancements pose an ‘evidence dilemma’ for policymakers. Acting too soon on limited evidence might be as perilous as waiting to act. 

Sharing the report on LinkedIn, Bengio said: “A central conclusion of the Report is that even the short-term future of general-purpose AI is remarkably uncertain. Both very positive and very negative outcomes are possible. Therefore, much depends on how societies and governments act.”

Depending on societies and governments to act in their best interest right now sounds like another dumb game, but the report nails one key finding. “AI does not happen to us: choices made by people determine its future.”

Sounds relevant for more than just AI.

Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief

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TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK

Shopify CEO commits to ‘buy local’ features for Shop app after criticizing Canada’s tariff response

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has pledged to roll out “buy local features” to the Shop app after criticizing the Canadian government’s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs on US imports.

Prior to announcing the Shop app changes, Shopify’s CEO publicly denounced the federal government’s decision in a post on X, writing that he was “disappointed” with both Trump’s decision to impose tariffs and Canada’s reciprocation.

Lütke said Shopify would be “unaffected” by the tariffs, but that Canadian small businesses on the platform are “not so lucky.”

Federal government delays implementation of capital gains inclusion rate increase to 2026

The federal government is deferring the controversial capital gains tax rate changes announced in last year’s budget from June 25, 2024 to Jan. 1, 2026.

Announced by Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc Friday morning, the new effective date likely places responsibility for legislating the tax changes on the next government.

While the new effective date provides certainty to Canadians for this year, many Canadian tech leaders bemoaned the “wasted time” on the policy’s prolonged implementation. 

Cohere leaders think DeepSeek proves their point about AI innovation

Artificial intelligence tech stocks plunged in the United States this week after Chinese AI company DeepSeek released its latest large-language model (LLM) that is comparable in many ways to other consumer-facing models, while developed at a fraction of the cost. 

Canada’s best-capitalized LLM developer, Cohere, thinks the media firestorm surrounding the launch of DeepSeek proves its point that efficiency is just as good of a predictor of innovation as eye-watering amounts of capital.

“People have been chasing the wrong rabbit in LLM development, thinking more compute is going to always lead to breakthroughs,” Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst said in a statement to BetaKit. “But now folks are coming around to our point of view: innovation and efficiency, not excessive compute, is the key.”

How Calgary-based startup Knead tackled the NFL draft’s food waste with software

Calgary-based Knead Technologies already embarked on its mission to curb food waste by deploying its software solution at the 2024 NFL Draft. Now, it has closed an $800,000 pre-seed round to connect food waste donors with food rescue organizations through its white-label app.

Pitching itself as the “Uber for food waste,” Knead sells a customizable software-as-a-service solution for non-profit organizations that redistribute food donations, such as food banks, emergency shelters, and soup kitchens. 

Majority of Canadian IT workers say they’d consider relocating to the US: survey

A survey by Winnipeg-based nonprofit tech skills school ComIT has found that nearly 64 percent of Canadian IT workers would go to the United States for a similar job if an opportunity arose.

Respondents cited the most frustrating part of their jobs as understaffing and high turnover, according to a combined 28 percent of respondents. Other frustrating factors include a lack of concern for employee well-being, outdated tech infrastructure, and issues with underqualified or poor management. 

In an email statement, ComIT executive director Pablo Listingart told BetaKit that the survey’s goal was to show the pains tech workers are going through, and the repercussions of those pains. 

Boardy partners with Diversio in effort to make its AI more inclusive following email backlash

Canadian-led Boardy has struck an ongoing partnership with Toronto-based workplace inclusivity training platform Diversio after a marketing attempt went awry last week. The startup’s unsolicited AI-generated emails critiquing users’ physical features faced swift backlash, particularly from women.

Boardy CEO Andrew D’Souza told BetaKit in an interview that he spoke with Diversio founder and CEO Laura McGee about the paradigm shift that comes with companies representing themselves with an AI persona.

“Obviously, there’s a human team involved and people behind the scenes, but the primary interface ends up being Boardy,” D’Souza said. “As we enter into that, we’re starting to think about how you make sure Boardy adheres to a set of values that are intentional.”

Why Canadian commerce startups are building “live shopping” into their marketing plans

As TikTok and Instagram continue to prove the power of video commerce, Toronto beauty brand Three Ships has embedded live shopping events directly into their own retail site.

Three Ships first tested a live shopping event in 2021, with a pre-sale for a product launch held during the pandemic.

“It was so chaotic,” Three Ships co-founder Connie Lo recounted at TechTO’s recent Commerce Toronto event. “We got a $20 Amazon tripod and we used my iPhone. We had one customer service person manning the questions that were coming in. And we did $20,000 in one hour.”

FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS

Weekly Canadian Deals & Dollars

  • SF – Canadian-led Nue raises $28.8M CAD Series A led by Inovia
  • NY – Canadian-founded Clay becomes unicorn in $57.5M CAD round
  • VAN – Mangrove Lithium secures $50.4M CAD for lithium refinery
  • CGY/TOR – OneVest raises $29M CAD Series B for US expansion
  • SSK – Conexus Venture Capital invests in Offstreet’s $2.4M round
  • KW – VueReal raises $58.4M CAD to boost semiconductor builds
  • GUE – Feds and Ontario back $1.1B auto manufacturing investment
  • MTL – Optable raises $28.8M CAD to fuel US growth
  • MTL – Nuvei acquires Japanese subsidiary of Paywiser
  • MTL – Plutera Capital acquires HardBacon’s assets
  • HFX – Sound Blade secures $23.8M CAD Series A round

The BetaKit Podcast – Why Alistair Croll wants Canadian startups to be more evil

“ Subversiveness is a way of changing the system. And I think what we’re seeing right now is that all systems are changing.”

Entrepreneur and Startupfest founding partner Alistair Croll has co-authored Just Evil Enough: The Subversive Marketing Handbook. Why are Canadian companies so bad with their go-to-market execution and is now really the time to be preaching subversion and disagreeableness? Let’s dig in.

The BetaKit Quiz — This week: Nuvei is big in Japan, AI’s Sputnik moment, and the Uber for what?

Think you’re on top of Canadian tech and innovation news? Test your knowledge with The BetaKit Quiz for Jan. 31, 2025.​

Feature image “Kick-off / Deep Learning “ by Jeremy Barande is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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