lately Lately: Tech's push against DEI, data sovereignty and indie success of Balatro

Globe and Mail

28-02-2025

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🗯️ Canadian tech leaders criticize Shopify's rollback of DEI initiatives
🫡 The push for data sovereignty
🤖 Amazon's new AI-powered Alexa
🃏 Balatro, a homegrown indie video game success story
🦋 Why are we so nostalgic for Y2K?
In the wake of President Donald Trump's election, major U.S. tech companies, including Meta and Google, have rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. (An exception is Apple, whose shareholders this week voted overwhelmingly to keep the policies.)
Now the shift against DEI measures is moving northbound, too. Last week, Canadian e-commerce company Shopify removed the web pages of several of its DEI programs – Build Native, Build Black, Social Impact and Empowered by Shopify. Numerous staff connected to these programs no longer work at the company, according to their LinkedIn accounts and other former employees, reports Irene Galea.
In response, hundreds of Canadian tech leaders have signed an open letter condemning Shopify and warned against the growing influence of unelected and unaccountable business leaders who 'prioritize profit over people.' Laura Gabor, one of the entrepreneurs who wrote the letter, said that Shopify's move away from DEI suggests the company was only ever acting performatively. 'I think what's happening in the U.S. has just given permission for people to start doing it here. It's like, 'Finally, we can take this mask off.'' Read the full story.
As Trump bellows on about Canada becoming the 51st state and sweeping tariffs, concerns over data sovereignty have become more urgent. In this case, sovereignty means data belonging to a Canadian entity is subject to the laws and regulations of this country, and cannot be easily accessed by a foreign government or law enforcement agency. As Joe Castaldo reports, Canada-U.S. tensions have prompted entrepreneurs, lawyers and other experts to consider how a U.S. administration could, if it wanted to, strike at the heart of Canada's digital infrastructure, including cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Canadian organizations rely heavily on U.S. companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon for storing and managing proprietary data. California-based Nvidia, meanwhile, is the world's biggest supplier of the in-demand chips used to build and run AI models. Although some Canadian companies have ensured their data resides within Canadian borders, that level of protection, known as data residency, may no longer be sufficient. This is why some argue it's time for Canada to build sovereign infrastructure. Read the full story.
This week Amazon announced a generative AI version of its smart speaker, dubbed Alexa+. The speaker-assistant will now be able to do more tasks, including ordering groceries or takeout, making restaurant reservations and controlling smart home products like Philips Hue lights. It has a camera that can analyze images, like, for example, reading a study guide and then testing you on the answers. You need a subscription to use these AI features though, which costs $19.99 a month or is free if you have Amazon Prime. Alexa+ is launching in the U.S. later this month and will be available in Canada later this year.
Alexa sales have slowed in recent years and Amazon's device business has lost more than US$25-billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The launch of this new paid tier is part of Amazon's goal to reverse those losses, although some engineers who worked on the project worry it won't actually work.
DOGE's chaos reaches Antarctica (Wired)
At 3 a.m., I turned to AI for comfort. That was my first mistake (The Walrus)
Is Google Maps fatally misleading drivers in India? It's complicated (Rest of World)
'There was this idea that we lived in this wonderful consumer world and you could fulfill yourself by choosing which color of iMac G3 you wanted, and this triumphalism that, whew, the Soviet Union was defeated, and now we can all just celebrate our freedom by buying stuff.' – Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000′s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) on this week's episode of the Lately podcast
Birdfy Feeder, $180
Across the seasons, my Toronto backyard gets visited by a few feathered friends: cardinals, blue jays, robins and what I believe are European starlings, which like to eat the kibble I leave out for the feral cats that also swing by. (I know, the idea of cats and birds commingling sounds disastrous, but there have been no incidents, at least that I'm aware of!)
One way I could attract even more birds to my backyard would be to put out an actual bird feeder, which I've recently learned has gone high-tech. This Birdfy feeder is fitted with a wide-angle camera and an app that will alert you when birds stop by, send photos of the action immediately and even identify the species. Plus, the close-up, fish-eye photos of the birds are super cute.
Inside the success of Balatro, the video game sensation made by an anonymous Canadian
One of the biggest Canadian cultural exports of the year wasn't streaming on Netflix and wasn't for sale in a bookstore. It's an indie hand-drawn pixel art video game called Balatro. Since it launched last February, more than five million copies of the game have been sold for major home video-game consoles, iOS and Android. At its core, Balatro is video poker, but mixed in with other classic game conventions like the ability to collect magical items and equipment to become gradually stronger.
The Canadian creator behind the blockbuster game is a mystery. He won't reveal his name (he only goes by LocalThunk) or even the province he lives in. He also has mixed feelings about the sudden attention placed on him and the game. 'I like seeing people enjoy the game, and that it has reached all these different people,' he said in an interview with The Globe's Steve Kupferman. 'But at the same time, it's the internet. So, with the good attention, there's always bad attention, too. It's been a lot.' Read the full story.