Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🤖 Google’s new AI model can power robots
😡 Anger toward Elon Musk drives Tesla vandalism
💰 Cohere releases low-cost AI model
📈 The anti-Trump podcast blowing up YouTube
ROBOTICS
Google’s new DeepMind AI model can power robots
Google's AI-powered robot packs a school lunchGoogle
Before the emergence of large language models, visions of artificial intelligence usually included futuristic societies with helpful robots. The reality, instead, has been mostly confined to chatbots. But Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research arm, has announced a new version of its AI model – called Gemini Robotics – that can control robotic arms and other hardware to complete real-world tasks. In a series of demonstration videos, the robots could pack lunches, fold origami foxes or clean a whiteboard after hearing verbal instructions. Google said the new model is able to control different robots in hundreds of scenarios that were not included in its training.
As Google barrels toward more advancements in AI-powered robotics, the company says it’s taking a “layered, holistic approach” to addressing safety, including releasing a Robot Constitution, inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Canadian company Cohere releases low-cost AI model
The Canadian company Cohere released an AI model that it says only cost US$30-million to build, significantly less than its competitors, some of whom have spent billions on data centres and computer chips to support development. Cohere’s large language model, called Command A, is on par or better than models from OpenAI and Chinese company DeepSeek on some tasks, such as coding and answering technical questions. Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst said the company was able to accomplish these results by focusing on what would be useful for business customers. In contrast, other AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are trying to develop artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is when AI systems are smarter than humans.
Earlier this year, DeepSeek released a generative AI model that cost only US$5.6-million, causing a panicked sell-off in tech stocks and raising questions over how much its competitors were spending.
TESLA
Anger against Elon Musk leads to Cybertruck vandalism and tumbling stocks
Protesters outside of a Tesla dealership in MichiganJEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images
For those angry with Elon Musk and his politics, protesting at Tesla dealerships, vandalizing its EV charging stations and tagging Cybertrucks have become a form of resistance. Over the past week, demonstrations have targeted Tesla dealerships across the United States, prompting President Donald Trump to label the protests as “domestic terrorism.” In a PR stunt, Musk brought a bunch of Teslas to the White House South Lawn, where Trump then bought a US$90,000 red Model S. The sedan has had 37 safety recalls.
It appears as if Musk’s outsized role in U.S. politics has also spooked investors, with Tesla shares plunging in recent days, outstripping the astronomical growth it experienced after Trump’s election. The political backlash is also partly to blame for low Tesla sales in Europe. In Germany, where Musk endorsed the far-right party AfD, sales last month were down 76 per cent.
What else we’re reading this week:
What went wrong at Saudi Arabia’s futuristic metropolis in the desert (Wall Street Journal)
How generative AI complements the MAGA style (New York Times Magazine)
Six apps that make shopping Canadian easier (Chatelaine)
Adult Money
HOME TECH
The Roomba encounters a 'dirt event'Roomba
Roomba 692, $387
It’s been a tough couple years for Roomba, the robot vacuum that peaked in the pandemic when so many of us holed up at home and noticed just how messy our floors were. In 2021, Roomba’s parent company, iRobot, was valued at US$3.56-billion in 2021. It is now worth less than US$200-million. Although sales may be lagging, the Roomba is still finding converts. In an essay for The Globe, Marina Boehm writes about recently purchasing the gadget and becoming obsessed.
“After it has completed its rounds, my husband and I, like anxious parents toilet training their little one, huddle over the garbage bag to see what treasure the Roomba has brought home to us in its dirt reservoir – popcorn kernels, dropped pills, cat treats, fallen dinner detritus and amorphous fuzz,” she writes. “Then I check the app to see how many ‘dirt events’ the Roomba has encountered. These reports serve as a feedback loop on our daily lives. Finally, we remove the filter and lovingly wash it to keep our new baby in optimal health.”
Culture radar
PODCASTS
Ben, Jordy and Brett Meiselas of the MeidasTouch Podcast.MeidasTouch/Supplied
How the anti-Trump MeidasTouch Podcast became a hit in Canada
Last month, the left-leaning and unabashedly anti-Trump MeidasTouch Podcast pulled off a rare feat: It bounced Joe Rogan from the top of the charts. The triumph marked one of the few times in the past four years that The Joe Rogan Experience was not the most listened to podcast in the U.S. and Canada. (The top ranking accounts for all downloads and views across podcast platforms and YouTube, according to analytics platform Podscribe.)
The political podcast is the work of the three Meiselas brothers: Ben, a civil-rights lawyer who represented NFL player Colin Kaepernick; Brett, a former editor on The Ellen DeGeneres Show; and Jordy, who worked in advertising. They call MeidasTouch the antidote to Rogan’s show, which has cemented itself as the epicentre of the right-leaning podcasts that have dominated the charts and become a pit stop for campaigning Republican politicians. Read my interview with Ben Meiselas about why so many people are turning to MeidasTouch right now and why they want to be the antidote to “the right-wing bro podcast sphere.”