Google’s quantum leap, Hinton’s Nobel Prize, and Medicago’s second shot

In her speech, Nobel Foundation board chair Astrid Söderbergh Widding said, “the atomic bomb recalls that basic research put into practice isn’t only for good,” later adding that the “unimaginable consequences” of AI may can only be managed by “truthful, rule-based international collaboration.”

When accepting the Nobel Prize, Geoffrey Hinton delivered an urgent warning on the future of humanity and AI, and decried technology companies motivated by short-term profits.

While all three co-founders studied under Hinton at the University of Toronto, Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst was Hinton’s first employee at Google Brain. Hinton left his role at Google last year to speak more freely about the potential risks of AI.

Cohere recently announced plans to build a multibillion-dollar AI data centre in Canada with the support of the Canadian government.

Adoption in Toronto was slower than in other markets at first, he said, due to its widespread adoption of tech from another local company. “Toronto’s professional class, our early adopters, disproportionately used BlackBerrys,” Macdonald told BetaKit, noting that initial hurdle limited Uber’s growth until it launched a workaround that allowed people to order rides via text message.

Spexi, which offers a “fly-to-earn” network of drone pilots that take high-resolution aerial imagery for government and industry clients, aims to offer a crypto token that can be used to reserve assignments or purchase advanced training.

The startup closed a $16.2-million CAD Series A round this week to develop new applications for its drone pilot network.

Prior to its acquisition by a larger player in the chef-made-meal delivery space, Cookin had raised $14.8 million in total funding from a group that does not include a former Canadian prime minister. Grocery giant Sobeys, Wealthsimple co-founder and CEO Michael Katchen, and Michelin Star chef and Alo Group owner Patrick Kriss are all investors.

The WHO denied Medicago’s vaccine citing the company’s ties to big tobacco, on the grounds that it was prevented from endorsing partnerships that “lend credibility to the industry.” Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris International was a shareholder of Medicago at the time, but divested all of its shares later that year.

Medicago shut down in 2023, but some of its former employees are getting a second shot at vaccine development with Aramis Biotechnologies, which is advancing a federally backed $80-million project to develop plant-based vaccines for influenza.

The Canadian Space Mining Corporation, a Toronto-based space tech startup, believes it will be ready to put nuclear power on the moon by 2029. The company intends to license SLOWPOKE-2, a Canadian-made nuclear reactor, to provide power for people working and doing research on the moon.

Julien Michalk, CEO and co-founder of UFrost, said those words after Québec investment-matching program Impulsion PME was quietly put on pause by Investissement Québec and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy. Michalk told BetaKit the suspension of the program killed the momentum of UFrost’s fundraising, leading other prospective investors to withdraw.

Google stated that its quantum computer, powered by a chip called Willow, completed a mathematical calculation in under five minutes—something one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers couldn’t accomplish in 10 septillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) years. That timeframe surpasses the age of the known universe.