Spotlighting Canada’s Most Ambitious
Plus: Feds considering Bill C-22 amendments.
Events
Ontario universities’ report says schools must help students use AI properly
Post-secondaries need more money and expertise to deal with AI shift, Council of Ontario Universities says.
Questrade’s Salim Naran doesn’t understand why more people aren’t using AI for personal finance
At Toronto Tech Week, Naran said uptake of AI tools for financial management is “surprisingly low.”
How Aurmada threads the needle of fashion and defence tech
Toronto startup is developing kevlar base layers and sensor-equipped garments for soldiers and everyday consumers.
Arteria AI CEO Shelby Austin is wary of Canada naming national tech champions
Austin argues the country needs to “widen our aperture” and let the market pick winners.
Canadian startups face a home-market adoption problem, CentML co-founder says
Before it sold to Nvidia, Toronto AI startup struggled to find local adopters willing to take a risk.
Canada’s forthcoming AI strategy aims to stop IP and value from leaving the country, parliamentary secretary says
Prime Minister Carney has confirmed that the long-delayed strategy will be released next week.
Quantum chemistry for drug discovery still hasn’t had its “ChatGPT moment,” biotech founder says
ProteinQure’s co-founder argues “messy biology experiments” are still the bottleneck.
Raquel Urtasun wants Canada to go “all in” on physical AI
Waabi founder said at BetaKit’s Most Ambitious: Town Hall that Canada could lead the physical AI revolution.
Investor burn books and FaceTiming Serena Williams: three founder fundraising stories from Homecoming
CEOs of Float, Neo Financial, and Rebel told Homecoming attendees how they courted investors.
Award-winning author Ken Liu is not afraid of AI slop
Liu is fine with AI coding, but finds the notion of it writing stories for him “revolting.”
Jim Balsillie says Canada must put forward economic policy for the 21st century
CCI chair spoke on taking a lesson from US economic policy during BetaKit’s Most Ambitious: Town Hall.
Cohere’s Nick Frosst thinks Canadian energy can be “100 percent” renewables
Growing Canada’s domestic capacity was a focus of Homecoming’s sovereignty-themed panel.
Defence tech founders are frustrated with Canada’s approach to “dual-use”
At Arctic Edge conference, VCs offered a mea culpa while outlining why dual-use tech is here to stay.
Eliot Pence: Canada’s defence buying timelines are “irrelevant” for modern warfare
At Most Ambitious: Town Hall, Dominion Dynamics CEO said procurement must move in weeks, not decades.