I feel like the tale of Chinese AI is going to play out more or less like the tale of Chinese electric vehicles. The U.S. is going to hold onto a model that doesn’t actually make sense anymore, and attempt to limit the better product instead of taking the necessary steps required to adapt.

Jeff Young@jefftheyoung.bsky.social · 3d ago

"'The way I’d put it,' the auto journalist Martin Padgett told me recently, 'is that we pulled a U-turn while the rest of the world was pushing forward.'” Look at global EV trends, then look at the US auto market. The US is heading for a Thelma & Louise style cliff. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/m...

Why is this feature necessary? Why does Google's leadership feel the need to add AI slop generating tools to Google Earth?

404 Media@404media.co · 5d ago

"Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam."

School/university boards/administrators seem to make decisions about "AI" in the classroom solely on hype, tech FOMO etc rather than basing them on research on pedagogy and what works for classrooms and students. The only ones benefiting are AI companies. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

‘Really inappropriate’: teachers decry plan for humanoid robot in New York high school

Robot from company that acquired sex doll maker to be introduced in school with large Native American population

theguardian.com

You gotta hand it to OpenAI, billing this as a *partnership* between OpenAI & Hugging Face when what actually happened was Hugging Face finding out that OpenAI was using a bunch of bots to exploit security vulnerabilities. Talk about good marketing or whatever you want to call it, by OpenAI.

I think @readtheorchard.org nails it with this. To use the heuristic "The purpose of a system is what it does," the purpose of Carney's government is quite clearly to advance a nakedly corporate agenda at the expense of Canadians (and the environment). open.substack.com/pub/theorcha...

For all of the talk of bright futures powered by AI, with huge productivity growth, the reality has always been more of this. AI, developed in the way it has been with a relentless focus on scale, is a mirror that reflects the worst of us.

The Breach@breachmedia.ca · 2w ago

Thanks to an AI program, Black prisoners in Ontario jails are being put in maximum security. @desmondcole.bsky.social reveals how the province is using an automated program that critics say is racially biased. youtu.be/s1HaG1p9p9g

Thanks to an AI program, Black prisoners in Ontario jails are being put in maximum security. @desmondcole.bsky.social reveals how the province is using an automated program that critics say is racially biased. youtu.be/s1HaG1p9p9g

AI is putting Black prisoners in maximum security

YouTube video by The Breach

youtu.be

Two big themes in my writing are moving away from our extractive economic model and the importance of place. In today's newsletter I explore how the latter can be a path out of the former *IF* we keep sight of the importance of strategy and power. open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

Building Beyond Extraction

Communities, power, and imagination

open.substack.com

First country to hold the men’s and women’s World Cups at the same time. Europe’s strongest voice against militarism and genocide in Gaza. Actively expanding immigration and enjoying one of Europe’s best economies. A great country!

Toronto had the worst air quality in the world yesterday 🌎 In a world where transportation accounts for the largest share of CO2 emissions, getting more people to take transit instead of driving is a climate solution. Funding transit is a climate solution!

Americans are obsessed with their rights but never discuss their responsibilities Conversely they foist “responsibilities” on others, without recognizing their rights - human and otherwise. They seem to feel owed but ovoid recognizing what they owe.

Global News@globalnews.ca · 3w ago

"If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people,” said a group of U.S. lawmakers. globalnews.ca/news/1196860...

If we built more pipeline we'd be so rich we could afford to buy gas masks for everyone in Toronto.

Clare Blackwood@clareblackwood.bsky.social · 3w ago

I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that the world outside my apartment window is currently what paint companies would label "Apocalyptic Orange." www.cp24.com/weather/2026...

If you’ve ever taken the VIA Canadian train across Northern Ontario, you’ve passed through Collins, even if you didn’t know it. The train is the main way in and out of that community. When they escape by motorboat, it’s because it’s the only way left to go.

Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · 3w ago

These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...

These photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic (Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”) www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, they let Messi win.

Today vs a non-smoke day

Pipeline-loving politicians are choosing to fill our kids' respiratory tracts with toxic air. Reject dystopia. Reject the lie that nation-building requires plundering our children's right to breathe. Parents & caregivers - we must protect what we love. Join the movement! www.forourkids.ca

Northern Ontario is burning, Toronto is blanketed by smoke, & Europe is melting. Yet governments are pushing more for more data centres and more fossil fuel use, often justified by ideas of growth and innovation. Sometimes, the real innovation is just to stop. open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

The World Is On Fire And Innovation Won't Save Us.

Sometimes we need to just stop doing things, rather than do new and innovative things.

open.substack.com

Why is Mark Carney earning praise from organizations that have spent years campaigning for two-tier health care in Canada? When the loudest applause is coming from groups pushing privatization, Canadians should be worried, writes Christopher Holcroft.

Under Carney, is Medicare still a Canadian value?

American-funded dark money groups are applauding Mark Carney’s hands-off response to Alberta’s move toward two-tier health care. With Ottawa now embracing provincial “flexibility,” the federal governm...

canadiandimension.com

People are fleeing burning towns & the now normalized "wild fire season" while the provincial & federal governments destroy climate protection & sell out to tech & extraction industries to make the rich, richer while human & non human life is irrevocably destroyed. Death merchants, all of them.

From projects.propublica.org/why-carbon-c...

Winnipeg Free Press@winnipegfreepress.com · 3w ago

CALGARY – The Alberta government, Ottawa and five major oilsands producers have signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the multibillion-dollar Pathways carbon capture and storage project. 

Please stop voting for people who are horny for pipelines. I beg of you.

I’m always reluctant to directly attribute any one weather event to climate change. But Canada’s current fossil-fuel boosterism does hit a bit harder while considering whether we have to keep our 6-year-old home from the baseball camp he’s been excited about, because of potential record heat.

i’m sorry but ‘literally died of hard heartedness’ is the most hack writing yet in an already weak season

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 3w ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lindsey Graham died from aorta rupture stemming from hardening of arteries: preliminary finding from medical examiner.

"Deeply sad about the loss of Ringwraith #4. We might have disagreed on policy, such as stabbing hobbits and murdering innocent villagers and working for the Dark Lord Sauron, but he loved riding horses and supporting his fellow Nazgûl. Wish he'd had more time." -Canadian politicians, apparently

Nobody celebrated human death with more glee than Lindsey Graham. Nobody.

Goldstein@goldstein.latinsky.app · 3w ago

Here is Graham gloating about "killing all the right people." Just in case you see anyone try to do the whole "we should have decency for the dead" nonsense.

"Imagine that Trudeau had announced...an extra $50 billion per year to fight climate change—he couldn’t say exactly how, or on what, but it was international obligation. ... "If he would’ve been laughed out of Ottawa... then maybe we should reserve at least a hint of that skepticism for Carney now."

Adam Radwanski@aradwanski.bsky.social · 4w ago

It can be instructive to imagine the reaction if Justin Trudeau (or most PMs before him) were announcing huge spending commitments with as little explanation and as much just-trust-me attitude as Mark Carney is doing. My weekend column: www.thestar.com/business/hey...

Wow. What a ridiculous, tone deaf, headline and statement. It is, of course, paywalled so I can’t read the full piece but the argument seems so symptomatic of a world view that thinks consumer surplus is the same as the chance for everyone to live a good and full life.

Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 4w ago

You could bristle at an $8, $9 or even $10 jar of tomato sauce — but there’s another way to see it. Shoppers have a broader range to balance price and quality, and many who can afford it are choosing to trade up.

It's incredible that we tolerate this as a society.

Toronto Star@thestar.com · 4w ago

A Toronto man who kidnapped a man at gunpoint in London, Ont., has seen his charges thrown out after police beat him up during his arrest and then lied about it in court.