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In this week’s issue:
📖 Enter Grokipedia, Elon Musk’s latest attack on Wikipedia
🧒🏻 For parents holding off on giving their kids smartphones, the peer pressure is real
🤖 Canadians increasingly concerned over AI-generated content
📈 Wealthsimple hits milestone valuation
GROKIPEDIA VS. WIKIPEDIA
Elon Musk launches Grokipedia, an anti-woke Wikipedia
Elon Musk's xAI launched Grokipedia on Monday.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
This week, Elon Musk’s startup xAI released the AI-generated encyclopedia Grokipedia, the billionaire’s latest effort to attack and dismantle Wikipedia, which he views as spewing leftist propaganda. Launched on Monday, the minimalist website looks quite similar to Wikipedia, but appears to have a more conservative, anti-mainstream-media editorial bent. On X, Musk wrote of Grokipedia: “Version 1.0 will be 10X better, but even at 0.1 it’s better than Wikipedia imo.”
For example, the Grokipedia article for “White genocide theory” – the equivalent on Wikipedia is called “White genocide conspiracy theory” – states that the framework has influenced discourse among “dissident intellectuals,” while facing “suppression through deplatforming and legal scrutiny in various jurisdictions.” The article for Canada’s residential school system says that “debates persist over inflated claims of undiscovered mass graves, where ground-penetrating radar anomalies have yielded no verified child remains despite media portrayals,” a common conspiracy theory in residential school denialism. On Grokipedia, gender is defined as “the binary classification of humans as male or female based on biological sex,” while on Wikipedia, it’s described as “the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or third gender.”
Wikipedia has long been a target of prominent figures on the American right, including Musk, Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz. Defenders of Wikipedia, however, say the free encyclopedia is meticulously sourced and non-partisan.
SMARTPHONES
Canadian parents sign pledge for a smartphone-free childhood
Many parents don’t want their kids to get smartphones. But if your kid is the only one in their friend group without a phone, the peer pressure mounts. That’s why a new grassroots initiative called Unplugged Canada is calling for collective action, urging parents to not get their kids smartphones until they are at least 14. The pledge is part of a larger, worldwide effort to avoid (or at least postpone) the harms of smartphone use and ensure that childhood is a time of play and real-life connections. Denmark recently proposed a ban on social media for children under the age of 15, while Australia has one for kids under 16 that is set to take effect in December. And as The Globe’s Dave McGinn reports, Unplugged Canada hopes to convince the federal government to adopt a similar ban. Read the full story here.
STARTUPS
Wealthsimple hits $10-billion valuation milestone
Wealthsimple has become one of the few Canadian tech companies to achieve a $10-billion valuation after striking one of the largest domestic venture capital financings in recent years. The Toronto online financial services provider raised $750-million in funding from San Francisco’s Dragoneer Investment Group and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, as well as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and existing backers Power Corp. of Canada and affiliate IGM Financial Inc. The deal is the latest in a string of multi-nine-figure financings this year by Canadian tech companies including Cohere, Jane Software, StackAdapt and Tailscale.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Majority of Canadians worried about AI-generated deception in the news
Nearly nine in 10 Canadians say they are concerned about deceptive online content generated by artificial intelligence, with nearly half encountering misleading or false information daily or several times weekly, according to a new national survey from the Canadian Journalism Foundation. The survey found that although all age groups are worried about AI-generated misinformation in the news, younger Canadians in particular reported the most frequent exposure to misleading and fabricated content.
Respondents said they encountered misleading information in various forms, with “fake news” and clickbait topping the list at 56 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively, followed by deepfakes and altered images (44 per cent), AI-manipulated content (43 per cent) and political disinformation (40 per cent).
What else we’re reading this week:
My book was stolen by an AI company. Why does suing them feel wrong? (The Walrus)
Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders (The Guardian)
A new startup wants to edit human embryos (Wired)
Adult Money
BEDTIME
Philips SmartSleep Wake-Up Light, $239
When you talk to sleep experts about sleep hygiene, the first thing they’ll tell you is don’t look at your phone in bed, which means, for those of us with lacklustre self-control, don’t leave your phone in your bedroom. It also means you need to use an alarm clock, ideally one that doesn’t display the time in big, glowing numbers and without a massive snooze button. This alarm clock from Philips simulates the warm hues of the sunrise, transitioning from red to orange to yellow to bright white, as wake-up time approaches. For heavy sleepers who need more of a wake-up call, five nature-inspired alarm sounds are included as backup.
Culture radar
GAMING
Animal Crossing getting an upgrade for Switch 2
I spent the first few months of the pandemic on an idyllic deserted island, pruning wildflowers, planting fruit trees and ruthlessly trying to capitalize on the booming turnip market. Along with some 31 million other gamers, I was deep into Nintendo’s world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. (A fascinating 2022 qualitative study examined how Animal Crossing satisfied “basic psychological needs” and offered “a sense of agency” during the pandemic.) Yet after months of studious playing, I eventually tired of Animal Crossing. I had expanded my house to its limit, and garden upkeep started to feel like an actual chore.
But I may soon be reinhabiting my island. This week, Nintendo announced it’s updating Animal Crossing: New Horizons with new features for the Switch 2 this January. The upgraded game will feature 4k visuals on TV, mouse controls to make designing your house easier, and an in-game megaphone that allows you to call out for your villagers. If you already own the original New Horizons game, the upgrade costs $7.