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:
👀 Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera and a new kind of mass surveillance
⛔ In wake of Tumbler Ridge shooting, false claims spread on social media
❤️🔥 Can AI teach humans how to love unconditionally?
💍 The most viral moments of the Milan Cortina Olympics so far
SURVEILLANCE
Ring’s new Search Party feature faces backlash
A screenshot from Ring's Super Bowl ad.Supplied
During the Super Bowl, an ad for Amazon’s Ring demonstrated how the doorbell camera’s new Search Party feature can use AI to surveil the neighbourhood to locate a missing dog. In the 30-second clip, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff says that since the feature launched, a dog a day has been reunited with their owners: “Be a hero in your neighbourhood with Search Party.” The ad sparked immediate backlash online as the ad portrayed a dystopian future of state surveillance that is deployed by homeowners. In the U.S., Ring has already come under fire for partnering with the surveillance tech company Flock Safety, which allows local law enforcement agencies to request footage from nearby Ring users when investigating an active case. Activists fear that the footage could be used by federal agents to harass, arrest and deport people as part of Donald Trump’s crack down on immigration.
MISINFORMATION
After Tumbler Ridge shooting, false claims proliferate online
In the hours after the tragic mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, an outpouring of support for the families of victims and the small northern B.C. community of 2,400 flooded social media. At the same time, prominent right-wing American influencers picked up the story, speculating on the gender identity of the shooter and spreading misinformation about the trans community.
On X, Elon Musk reacted to and shared several posts to his 234 million followers that falsely claimed trans people are the most likely to commit mass shootings. LibsofTikTok, an American far-right, anti-LGBTQ account with more than 4.6 million followers on X, has posted several transphobic messages and reposted derogatory memes. Despite statistics repeatedly showing that the majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by cisgender men, the targeting of the trans community has become a key element of the right-wing media ecosystem. Read my full story here.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Can AI teach humans how to love unconditionally?
Welcome to Love 3.0.ILLUSTRATION: THE GLOBE AND MAIL. SOURCES: CSA/GETTY IMAGES
It’s been just over three years since ChatGPT launched, and since then, our love lives have never been the same. Caia Hagel, a digital anthropologist and cultural forecaster, calls this era Love 3.0.
“Chatbots are always available. They laugh at our jokes. They receive our fears, cravings and confessions, then reflect us back to ourselves with reassurance and insight,” writes Hagel in an opinion essay for The Globe. “Its non-judgmental ever-presence becomes indistinguishable from unconditional love, and causes the brain to release dopamine and oxytocin. Add sex, and the circuit is complete.” Read the full essay here.
What else we’re reading this week:
China showcases new moon ship and reusable rocket in one extraordinary test (Ars Technica)
What is Claude? Anthropic doesn’t know, either (The New Yorker)
Why internet stars are Chinamaxxing (GQ)
Adult Money
WEARABLE TECH
The Ultrahuman smart ring.Supplied
Not to be confused with Amazon’s Ring, a slew of smart rings, which track everything from hormonal cycles to sleep quality and stress levels, have become popular beyond the fitness bros and wellness junkies. In recent years, as new brands of these rings have entered the market, more and more people are giving them a try in the hopes the wearable gadget could encourage better lifestyle habits.
Smart-ring curious Globe reporter Ann Hui engaged in an experiment: She would spend two months wearing three of the most popular rings available in Canada. She chose the Oura Ring 4 (the original smart ring brand first launched in 2015); the Ultrahuman Ring Air (aimed at athletes and tech types) and the RingConn Gen 2 Air (the most budget-friendly option). She was immediately obsessed by some of the scores, like sleep quality, but also questioned how gamifying her health was making her more anxious. Read the full article here.
Culture radar
WINTER OLYMPICS
The most viral moments of the Olympics, so far
Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate goes full minion.Mike Egerton/The Associated Press
The Milan Cortina Olympics have already been chock-full of awe-inspiring and heartbreaking moments: Canadian moguls GOAT Mikaël Kingsbury scoring silver; American ski star Lindsey Vonn crashing in her downhill race; Canadian ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier winning bronze – their first Olympic medal and the country’s first figure skating medal in eight years. But what’s been the most viral moment so far? There are a few contenders. While Paris 2024 had the chocolate muffin, the hottest dessert in the athletes village cafeteria in 2026 is a chocolate lava cake. (Canadian hockey player Natalie Spooner rated it a 9.1 out of 10.) Or it could be Spanish figure skater Tomàs Guarino Sabaté’s delightful short program set to a club-ready Minions remix, which almost didn’t happen because of last-minute copyright issues. After fierce public backlash, Universal Pictures finally relented and approved the music.
In my opinion, however, the most viral – and cringiest – is when Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid who used his finish line interview to apologize for cheating on his now-ex-girlfriend. “I had the gold medal in life, and I am sure there are many people who will see things differently, but I only have eyes for her,” he said on live television, after winning the bronze medal in the biathlon. Laegreid’s ex-girlfriend has since responded: “We have had contact, and he is aware of my opinions on this.” Ouch.
For those who prefer the more traditional grand gestures at the finish line, like, say, a proposal, the Milan Cortina Olympics has had that too: American skier Breezy Johnson’s boyfriend got down on one knee at the end of the super-G run in Cortina on Thursday. (She said yes.)