In case you somehow weren’t one of the more than 73 million (!) viewers of Matt Shumer’s viral essay this week, here’s a quick recap.
Shumer, the co-founder of OthersideAI, used AI to help him write an intense warning about how the technology’s capabilities are accelerating faster than we realize. The fix, Shumer argues, is to get on board now by upgrading to paid AI tools and becoming proficient—or risk being left behind.
“Given what the latest models can do, the capability for massive disruption could be here by the end of this year,” Shumer writes. “It’ll take some time to ripple through the economy, but the underlying ability is arriving now.”
Shumer has a history of exaggerated claims about AI’s capabilities, but for coders who have already experienced how rapidly Claude and similar tools have changed their workflows, the essay seemed to resonate (Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and X’s Nikita Bier immediately co-signed).
It also quickly spawned contrarianresponses from those who see AI as more of an assistive tool rather than a society disruptor. Noted AI critic Gary Marcus was not impressed.
The biggest outcome of Shumer’s essay might be highlighting the current social divide over AI, something BetaKit saw represented in recent earnings from companies like OpenText and Shopify (more below). As Sherwood News recently reported, “while tech evangelists are hailing a Claude-fueled seismic shift in computer-based work, investors are, by and large, selling AI stocks.”
What are you seeing? Big or small, let us know.
Sarah Rieger
Managing Editor
The U of T startups strengthening Canada’s economy
Combining research-driven innovation with an entrepreneurial spirit, the University of Toronto’s venture-backed startups have built transformative technologies, created 20,000+ jobs, and are helping to grow Canada’s economy.
These impressive rapidly scaling companies include:
• Erthos, a cleantech startup that replaces plastics with plant-based alternatives, built for a circular economy.
• AmacaThera, a biotech startup revolutionizing drug delivery to enhance treatment precision and recovery.
• Ada, an AI startup that’s transforming customer engagement through intelligent, automated interactions.
Watch their inspiring stories and explore the full list.
The University of Toronto is the #1 university in Canada for entrepreneurs (PitchBook 2025) and top 5 globally for university business incubators.
The feds asked investors for candid feedback on BDC. It was never actioned
What do Canadian VCs say about the Business Development Bank of Canada when they’re allowed to stay anonymous?
BetaKit obtained a government-commissioned 2023 report filled with feedback from the private sector, which was never actioned. Three years later, investors say the problems outlined in the report persist.
Feds’ $6.6-billion Defence Industrial Strategy takes aim at building a “robust” Canadian defence sector
As Canada ramps up its defence spending in a big way after decades of neglect, the DIS is a $6.6-billion plan of attack to ensure that domestic companies play “a central role” in the country’s push to rebuild its armed forces and bolster its sovereign defence capabilities.
This plan could have big benefits for Canadian tech, which spent 2025 embracing defence and angling for a cut of the billions that the feds plan to pour into the sector over the coming years.
Inside the Edmonton facility building quantum’s hidden infrastructure
As the global race to develop quantum technology heats up, Zero Point Cryogenics is one of just six companies worldwide manufacturing the freezing-cold dilution refrigerators necessary for quantum research.
Shopify stock slumps despite record-breaking Q4 revenue
The Ottawa e-commerce giant reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue, announced a $2-billion USD stock buyback, and positioned itself as an AI e-commerce leader. Still, investors weren’t impressed amid a broader downturn in tech stocks.
Taiv wants to let you choose your own TV ads
The Winnipeg startup, valued at just under $100 million USD, raised $13 million USD to expand to more bars and restaurants across North America. Taiv’s advertising tech uses AI to detect and replace live commercials.
Alberta tech community building
- Iversoft CEO Graeme Barlow brought his Founders Dinner series, an invite-only networking dinner, to Edmonton and Calgary this week. The dinners have just two rules: no politics and no sales.
- It may not have been broadcast on television, but for a handful of early-stage Edmonton founders, Thursday night’s Black Business Ventures Association (BBVA) Innovation Expo was like a round in the Dragons’ Den.
Ssense founders can buy back company, court rules
The embattled Montréal luxury e-commerce platform will return to the hands of its founders after a court dismissed an attempt by its group of lenders, led by the Bank of Montreal, to block the deal.
ApplyBoard researchers say they have a fix for AI’s “silent failure” problem
The Kitchener-Waterloo EdTech company won an award for a research paper that proposes a solution to a common AI “hallucination:” models confidently presenting incorrect results when extracting information from documents.
Canada’s new AI strategy is off to a bad start
In an op-ed for BetaKit, Blair Attard-Frost, a fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, argues that the federal government’s muddled engagement on its AI strategy is only worsening the public’s AI trust issues.
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
The cloud myth holding Canadian companies back
Why Unicorne President Éric Pinet says cloud maturity has nothing to do with team size or budget—and how Infrastructure as Code, FinOps discipline, and designing for failure separate resilient cloud teams from expensive ones.
Canada’s tech and manufacturing leaders target N3 Summit for global growth
How NGen is bringing manufacturers, policymakers, and investors together at the N3 Summit to tackle trade pressure, defence procurement, and global expansion for Canadian advanced manufacturing.
The startup bringing a piece of America’s FinTech stack to Canada
Why Slate is betting embedded lending—built specifically for Canada’s regulatory reality—can help SaaS platforms unlock new revenue without taking on bank-level complexity.
Josh Ogden thinks Canada’s drone industry can gain some altitude
How AVSS is proving that Canadian-owned IP, domestic manufacturing, and dual-use drone technology can still scale globally—and why ownership matters more than ever in a volatile geopolitical climate.
🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars & More
VAN – Photonic, Telus claim “world-first” quantum teleportation
AB – Alberta invests $28M to improve environmental outcomes
EDM – Trust Science acquires fraud prevention platform Lenders API
TOR – Elle, MD, Hiive, and LiORA win CIX Startup Awards
TOR – Modem closes $4.4M USD to help developers ship faster
TOR – Kiwi Charge unveils $1.7M EV-charging robot pilot project
OTT – Backboard.io claims leading scores on AI memory benchmarks
MTL – Kainova closes $32M for cancer and inflammation therapies
MTL – Kaster closes $1.6M to scale up pharma manufacturing
MTL – Haply Robotics raises $16M to build ‘touch layer’ for robots
The BetaKit Podcast — Is BDC too big to change?
“BDC is powerful in the sense that it can make or break a fund… And a lot of people are trying to close funds right now.”
In 2022, the federal government commissioned a report asking Canada’s VCs what they thought about Crown corporation BDC. The report was effectively forgotten, and the feedback was never actioned. Why? What did the report have to say about Canada’s largest venture investor? And with Canadian VC in a multi-year lull, is BDC’s “steady hand” approach preferred or simply necessary?
BetaKit reporter Madison McLauchlan joins to discuss.
Feature image courtesy Matt Shumer via X.