Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. We’re Rachel Ferstl and Moira Wyton, Samantha Edwards’s extremely online colleagues filling in for her this week. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human before she’s back, send us an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🪆 Russia uses TikTokers to recruit drone-factory workers
🤖 AI could come for nearly half of government jobs, study finds
💸 The anatomy of a crypto heist
🏒 Hockey Canada verdict is a vindication in the manosphere
INFLUENCERS
TikTok stars under fire for campaign enticing South African women to drone-factory jobs in Russia
South African TikToker Cyan Boujee wasn't the only one to promote the Russian program, but she was one of the most high-profile.Tiktok/Supplied
TikTok influencers are receiving public backlash and stern government warnings for promoting a deceptive campaign aimed at luring young South African women into jobs at a Russian military drone factory.
The controversy erupted this past weekend after popular South African social-media influencer Cyan Boujee posted TikTok and Instagram videos that painted a glowing picture of a Russian recruitment scheme. The videos attracted huge attention, but they failed to disclose that the jobs would involve working at a factory that produces thousands of military drones for Russia’s war against Ukraine. The Globe’s Geoffrey York writes about the social-media campaign and how influencers are handling the fallout.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Public sector jobs are more vulnerable to disruption by AI than the Canadian workforce as a whole, study finds
Government jobs are at higher risk of being replaced by AI than the average Canadian worker, according to a new study.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Nearly half of government jobs are made up of tasks that AI could replace, a study from the Dais think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University found. The research, released Monday, shows that nearly three-quarters of Canada’s 1.1 million public sector workers are in roles that are highly exposed to AI. About 25 per cent of those jobs are complementary with AI, meaning the technology can help with the work.
As Joe Castaldo writes, there are plenty of ways generative AI can improve productivity in the public sector, including handling transcription and translation, and assisting with writing and editing reports and briefs. But there’s a risk that some roles may be replaced outright by AI tools. The report recommends that the public sector think about long-term workforce planning to help make sure that employees whose roles are most at risk of being replaced by AI can transition to other jobs.
CYBERCRIME
Inside a crypto heist: Hamilton youth who stole $48-million strikes again
A Canadian is at the centre of a tale of deception, thievery and betrayal that is putting a spotlight on the estimated $4-trillion crypto industry.The Globe and Mail
At 17, he stole $48-million in cryptocurrency. At 19, he said he was “very sorry” for the theft, which police called the most crypto ever stolen from an individual. A judge in Hamilton sentenced the teen to one year of probation, taking into account his year spent in custody and his apologetic promise to never do it again.
But then, throughout that sentencing period, the young man was, in fact, doing it again, operating a separate, high-profile crypto heist. While it yielded much less than the first – about US$800,000 – the scheme garnered international attention and shook the crypto world by targeting influential Twitter accounts that dealt in NFT digital art. The case shines a spotlight not just on the still young, multitrillion-dollar crypto industry, but also the rising cybersecurity dangers as more of our lives move online. Ethan Lou takes us inside the tale of deception, thievery and betrayal.
ONLINE WORLDS
In the manosphere, the Hockey Canada trial’s not-guilty verdict is viewed as a vindication
Responses to the acquittal of five former world junior hockey players accused of sexual assault have been varied from relief to anger, but in the online manosphere, the verdict has brought jubilation.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
After five former world junior hockey players were found not guilty of sexual assault last month, responses included relief from the players and their families, concern from anti-sexual-violence advocates and anger from many sexual-assault survivors and supporters of the complainant. The case has bruised the sport, raising concerns it demonstrates hockey culture’s problematic and misogynistic attitudes and drawing the NHL’s condemnation of the players’ behaviour as “unacceptable.”
But for some factions of the manosphere, the response to the acquittals was jubilation. Indeed, in this online world of fringe men’s rights forums, niche sports podcasts and social-media accounts with devoted followings of young men, a different narrative has played out. The trial, and subsequent acquittals, were validation of a toxic worldview that claims women routinely lie about sexual assault, false rape allegations are rampant and men need to protect themselves.
As Lately’s own Samantha Edwards reports, those who study the manosphere and the harmful ideologies it can breed caution that the verdict could have lasting ripple effects that shape conversations around sexual assault.
What else we’re reading this week:
A teen was suicidal. ChatGPT was the friend he confided in. (The New York Times)
Smart glasses are back. Gen Z is trying to stop them. (The Washington Post)
YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos. The results could bend reality (BBC)
Adult Money
PICTURE PERFECT
Would you pay $1 for a tiny portrait? Torontonians have been lining up for Jasmine Boyd's creations in Trinity Bellwoods Park thanks to a TikTok that took off.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
A nine-second TikTok video has put hundreds of loonies into the pockets of Jasmine Boyd, a 21-year-old amateur artist who sells hand-drawn portraits from a booth in a Toronto park for only $1 each. Less than a month after Boyd posted the video it had gained almost 200,000 views, with hundreds of people requesting more dates and times to come see her at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Since then, she has hosted seven more pop-ups and attracted more than 500 people (and a few dogs) to her eight-hour drawing sessions. Khushy Vashisht went and checked out one of the viral events.
Culture radar
IT’S A LOVE STORY
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement is proof you can still break the Internet
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged, and the Internet seems to see no need to calm down.Taylor Swift via Instagram/Reuters
It was the hard launch to end all hard launches. Taylor Swift and NFL tight-end Travis Kelce announced they are in their engagement era in an Instagram post Tuesday. The photos, cheekily captioned, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” racked up 33.4-million likes and became the 12th most-liked Instagram post ever within two days. The news seemed to travel faster – and with more digital fervour – than even Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 or U.S. President Donald Trump’s hospitalization with COVID-19 in 2020.
TikTok was flooded with analysis of the florals, the location and Swift’s massive (not-at-all paper) ring, as fans and brands hopped on memes of the two embracing to get a slice of the magic moment. Politicians, including Mr. Trump, celebrities and athletes from around the world publicly congratulated the couple, and the Ralph Lauren dress Swift wore in the photos sold out within 20 minutes.
It was yet another display of how powerful – and profitable – Swift’s personal brand is, and how social media has helped her build it into a cultural force even bigger than her music. Cheers to her and the soon-to-be Mr. Swift.