Why have we heard so much about Kimi K3 and open-weight models this week? What do they mean for the future of AI? robertdiab.substack.com/p/open-weigh...

Open-weight models and the future of AI

Why does everyone from Wall Street to the White House care so much about Kimi K3?

robertdiab.substack.com

Lead piece in the NYT: “Last year, the [data centres] consumed 64 gigawatts of electricity globally, roughly as much electricity as Germany consumes… By the end of 2030, that is expected to quadruple, eclipsing the power used by all countries in South America and Africa combined.

Open-weight models are not open source. Much about them is never disclosed. Canada’s consultation on AI transparency will look at many issues, including how much model makers should have to disclose. robertdiab.ca/posts/ai-tra...

Canada has launched a public consultation into AI transparency, with a discussion paper that looks at: -AI-generated content; -AI tools; -Information about the models; -AI incidents; and -AI agents. Will more disclosure make AI seem more trustworthy? robertdiab.substack.com/p/will-more-...

Will more transparency about AI make you trust it more?

Canada launches a public consultation on AI transparency, signaling a future of more frequent notice and more disclosure about risks

robertdiab.substack.com

Your Saturday morning read... A good overview of what a gov policy on AI transparency might entail. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...

Google’s AI summaries are diverting traffic, but with recent changes, we may not be heading to ‘Google Zero.’ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/t...

How Google’s A.I. Search Is Imperiling the Open Web (Gift Article)

As Google incorporates more artificial intelligence into search, people are spending more time on Google. Some website operators are crying foul.

nytimes.com

Speaking of the consequences of acting without thinking or planning… Canada’s AI strategy is Policy FOMO, governance by Underpants Gnomes. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Opinion: Canada’s new AI data centres could be obsolete before they open

Environmental concerns are at the forefront, but the growth of small-language models that run on laptops should also give governments pause

theglobeandmail.com

Many insights in Reuter's Digital News Report 2026, including its main finding: platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube are — for the first time — more popular sources of news, on a global average, than TV and legacy news venues. More in today's post: robertdiab.substack.com/p/who-contro...

Who controls how we get the news?

A global survey shows power continuing to move from publishers to platforms, with AI playing a growing role

robertdiab.substack.com

New Substack post, riffing off a recent blog post by @robertdiab.bsky.social. On what it means to "teach AI" to law students. Comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

What does it mean to 'teach AI' to law students?

Law schools better start figuring it out.

open.substack.com

Gregory Conti in Compact Magazine: "the most vocal skeptics have not fully reckoned with how anthropomorphic AI... is currently in the process of unsettling human psychology and the social fabric." www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The AI Apocalypse Is Already Here

Americans do not care for artificial intelligence. Recent polling shows that their attitudes mostly range from ambivalence to horror.

compactmag.com

Can you just ignore AI and still be a competent lawyer? (or law prof?) Or will all lawyers soon need to use AI in some capacity to be competent? I take this up at slaw.ca, making the case that soon, most of us will need to be on board with AI. lnkd.in/gtpYyhm8

Slaw

Canada's online legal magazine

slaw.ca

Another insight from The Atlantic piece on reading — the few of us still reading form a small strong subculture. But should we be consoled by this? www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

An exceptional contribution to the Gutenberg Elegy tradition www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

The End of Reading Is Here

Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.

theatlantic.com

Bill C-34 promises effective age verification for social media, and effective AI reporting to police, without compromising privacy. But it can't be done.

Thoughtful piece on how the many recent bills undermining democratic rights in Canada are part of a larger problem of power concentration in the PMO…

James L Turk@jameslturk.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The V-Dem Institute report on global democracy shows Canada's democratic decline, accelerated by the firehose of government bills undermining basic civil liberties, human rights and democratic practices-- C-5, C-4, C-15, C-12, C-14, C-9, and C-22. cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2026/06...

Is Canada's teen social media ban constitutional? It's complicated: Legal experts warn Bill C-34 could leave federal government open to legal challenges www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

A proposed social media ban for kids is meant to protect them. Could it violate their rights? | CBC News

Legal experts say the federal social media ban for kids leaves many questions unanswered — including whether it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Lawyers and law professors are raising flag...

cbc.ca

Thoughts on Canada's contentious lawful access bill that the House has just passed. robertdiab.substack.com/p/parliament...

Parliament has amended Bill C-22, but has it addressed the biggest privacy concerns?

The House has passed the lawful access bill with amendments, still leaving crucial issues in question

robertdiab.substack.com

Great idea Sarah and great work! CanLII's open collection of legal commentary is invaluable.

Sarah A. Sutherland@parallaxinfo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My new pieces have been added to the updated CanLII ebook of my @slawdotca.bsky.social columns. The development of CanLII's open collection of legal commentary continues to be one of the things I am most proud of working on in my career, and I'm happy to continue to contribute. canlii.ca/t/smqs

Shocked, speechless.

Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · 2mo ago

Hockey Night in Canada has been fully privatized

I have regularly butted heads with the Privacy Commissioners we've had over the past 20+ years, but sidelining an organization with decades of experience to empower an as yet unconstituted body is frankly shocking. #BillC34

Bill C-34 will change our relationships with AI and the bonds we forge with it. It will regulate the content of our conversations but also the way chatbots behave with us...

After making it free to test for a couple of weeks, last night Anthropic suspended access to Fable 5...

I had a good chat with Rob Breakenridge of the National Post about Bill C-34 aka the Safe Social Media Act. youtu.be/lcMrlLhjeV0

Protecting kids or deputizing censors? The risks posed by social media ban

YouTube video by National Post

youtu.be

Though most of Bill C-34 Safe Social Media Act is left to regulations or Commission rulemaking, it is clear that once it comes into effect young people will be precluded from learning about this law on this site, and all Canadians will have to prove they old enough to handle it.

Will Canadians soon have to prove their age to use social media? Bill C-34 leaves many important details to future regulations. Which platforms will be covered? How will age verification work? Will some services be exempt? I take a brief look here: robertdiab.substack.com/p/will-canad...

Will Canadians now have to prove their age to use social media?

A first look at Bill C-34, Canada’s new Safe Social Media Act, and how the under-16 ban might work

robertdiab.substack.com

CanLII and AI connectors are making legal research in Canada smarter, faster, and more accessible... www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

AI tools for case law research keep getting better

CanLII and AI connectors are making legal research in Canada smarter, faster, and more accessible

nationalmagazine.ca

"Chilling effects can be subtle, but today they are everywhere. And it’s not just students who are chilled by Trump administration threats." @penney.bsky.social, author of Chilling Effects, on Donald Trump and free speech for @theconversation.com #LawSky #PoliSky https://cup.org/4fIEAFl

Chilling effects of Trump’s war on free speech extend far beyond campus walls – and that’s the point

A persistent government strategy to sow fear through punitive measures has corroded freedom and democracy.

theconversation.com

OPED: Lawyers looking for AI-assisted case law research have, until recently, faced a stark choice. @robertdiab.bsky.social says two new tools have changed that. nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

AI tools for case law research keep getting better

CanLII and AI connectors are making legal research in Canada smarter, faster, and more accessible

nationalmagazine.ca

I found this enormously informative — a close reading of the encryption and metadata provisions, and implications of the Cloud Act agreement on the way. Thanks @cyn-k.bsky.social, @kate-robertson.bsky.social, and @digitalprivacy.ca!

Cynthia Khoo@cyn-k.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New joint publication by @citizenlab.ca + @cancivlib.bsky.social! In which @kate-ro.bsky.social & I join forces w/ Tamir @digitalprivacy.ca to explain the federal govt's many... "(Un)forced Errors: Analysis of Proposed Surveillance Law Expansion under Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access" 🧵1/x

The principal police lobby groups (Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, National Police Federation and Canadian Police Association) have something to say about Bill C-22 Lawful Access, and it's so full of crap that I hardly know where to start. www.cacp.ca/cgi/page.cgi...