Last week, an automated bakery in Montréal was vandalized for the second time in recent months.
The news: The words “action anti tech” were spray-painted on the business, which is run on a self-serve system and also uses AI in its advertising. On the store’s social media post about the incident, many commenters spoke to their concerns with technology, and the bakery’s use of it, rather than expressing sympathy over the incident. One post reads, “Although I prefer to boycott, I fundamentally can understand why your store was vandalized.”
From the source: “There is now something of what could be called a ‘New Luddite’ movement,” writes Ariel Wittenberg for Politico. Wittenberg writes that anger over the harms caused by data centres and AI chatbots in the US, and unequal distribution of profits, is spurring a broader political movement against technology.
The context: In the US, where data centres have a major contested presence, anti-tech sentiments have sometimes spilled into violence; a Molotov cocktail was recently tossed at Sam Altman’s home, and shots were fired at the door of an Indiana councillor over state data centre discussions. Canadians do hold negative sentiments: more than two-thirds of Canadians would oppose a data centre being built near their home, and just one in three trust AI. Despite that opposition, backlash here hasn’t materialized to the same extent. However, this incident, as well as protests across the country against data centres, might indicate growing friction.
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Latest news across tech
Drama at DeepMind
Google’s stock price dropped on Wednesday after it announced major changes to its AI unit.
The company, which has been criticized for falling behind in the AI race, shifted the Nobel Prize-winning CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, to the chief scientist role, according to Reuters. Jeff Dean and several other notable engineers also left to start their own venture, Discovery Loop, which Toronto-based Radical Ventures announced it is backing.
Cash crop
Data is becoming just as valuable as crops for some farmers. The Globe and Mail reports on the AI-powered tools enhancing farming operations in the real world, and the effort to boost Canada’s lagging AgTech investment and adoption rate.
Crawlers stop crawling
Independent media outlet stupidDOPE said its website was brought down after it was accessed and scraped more than 70 million times by web crawlers pulling content for six AI companies. Reporting from 404 Media shows that web crawlers are proving to be a pest, as platforms like Cloudflare and Patreon are moving to block crawlers intended for AI training.
SpaceX’s crash landing
The rocket that SpaceX crashed into the moon wasn’t its only sudden descent this week. While the stock price of Elon Musk’s space company climbed leading up to its first earnings call on Tuesday evening, those gains were erased after SpaceX reported a sixfold increase in capital expenditures, mostly related to AI spending.
As of Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX was trading at around $110 USD per share, well below its all-time high of $225 and IPO price of $135 per share.
Coldcard breached
Well over $100 million USD in Bitcoin has been stolen from users of Coldcard, an offline crypto wallet storage device made by Toronto-based Coinkite, according to CBC News. Hackers figured out the algorithm the device used to generate seed phrases on an old firmware version; now the company is urging users to migrate their keys immediately.
Misinformation spreading like wildfire
Canadian wildfires are getting worse, and so is the misinformation surrounding them. The Narwhal reports how misleading AI summaries, incorrect AI-generated maps and infographics, and conspiracy theories can bring real-world risks.
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On the move
This week’s hires, fires, and exec shakeups:
- FinTech leaders from Wealthsimple, Koho, and ABCorp have joined the board of the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization.
- Montréal-based meal kit service Goodfood is seeking creditor protection after the resignation of its CEO, Selim Bassoul.
- U of T prof Sanja Fidler left her role as Nvidia’s VP of AI research.
- Well Health said it appointed Loreto Grimaldi as its chief legal officer and Kaytek Przybylski as its chief digital and information officer.
- Former Float product manager Sarah Marion announced on LinkedIn that she’s joined Wealthsimple to lead its kids and teens accounts.
- Richmond, BC-based mining tech startup Ideon Technologies said it appointed Anirban Basu as its VP of software engineering.
- Toronto blockchain firm Tokenwell appointed Sheldon Levy as CEO following Timothy J. Burgess’ departure last month.
- Digital wellness platform LifeSpeak appointed former Telus Health leader Neil King as CEO.
- Toronto youth are ‘disheartened’ over the labour market after 50,000 people applied for just 5,000 jobs at the CNE this year, CBC News reported.
Want to feature a hiring announcement on our list? Email partnerships@betakit.com with the subject line JOBS.
#1. Fill in the blank: “____maxxing is not what we are optimizing for,” Microsoft EVP Jay Parikh said in an email to employees.
Your score:
Quiz answer: a) Tokenmaxxing. Parikh told employees that Microsoft will start managing AI token spend with the same discipline it applies to “every other critical resource,” and make a cheaper ChatGPT model its default for internal use, according to 404 Media.
Quiz answer: a) Tokenmaxxing. Parikh told employees that Microsoft will start managing AI token spend with the same discipline it applies to “every other critical resource,” and make a cheaper ChatGPT model its default for internal use, according to 404 Media.
Contributors: Alex Riehl (Ottawa staff writer), Douglas Soltys (editor in chief), Sarah Rieger (managing editor), Trevor Nichols (web editor).
Feature image courtesy Sarah Reiger for BetaKit.