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:
🤑 Trump’s crypto empire
📖 A new book about OpenAI
🛍️ Going shopping in AI mode
🐬 A retro video game revival
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
It’s time to talk about Trump’s crypto obsession
Demonstrators protesting Trump's crypto dealings on May 22.Jemal Countess/Getty Images
I’ve resisted writing about U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing crypto empire, but in recent weeks, it’s become so big I feel like I can no longer blissfully ignore it. Unlike in his first administration, in which he called crypto a “scam,” Trump and his allies are now fully championing digital currencies. The government has already loosened some rules and regulations and directed the treasury secretary to create two federal crypto reserves. In January, Trump launched his own eponymous meme coin $TRUMP. Last week he attended a black-tie dinner with the top buyers of $TRUMP, garnering backlash from critics who say the president is personally profiting from the meme coin while still in office. And the profits have been big: According to an analysis from the Washington Post, Trump-affiliated businesses have received around US$312-million from crypto sales and US$43-million in fees.
At the same time, Vice-President JD Vance spoke at a bitcoin conference and urged lawmakers to pass the “GENIUS Act,” which would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins – a type of coin tied to another asset such as the U.S. dollar. The Trump family holds a 60 per cent stake in World Liberty Financial, which recently launched its own stablecoin. Ethics experts argue that Trump’s many crypto ventures are a conflict of interest, and Democrats are calling for a formal investigation into the meme coin dinner. The White House has dismissed all these concerns.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
OpenAI and the new colonial world order
Tech journalist Karen Hao has a succinct way of describing OpenAI, the company she’s been reporting on since 2018. It’s the leader of a “modern colonial world-order” where the richest AI companies extract unfathomable amounts of resources and exploit workers in the pursuit of superintelligence. She outlines this argument in her new book, Empire of AI: The Dreams and Nightmares of Sam Altman’s OpenAI, which tracks how the company transformed from a non-profit that positioned itself as an idealistic underdog into the world’s largest AI company worth US$300-billion.
The book is thoroughly researched, eye-opening and likely to spur an existential spiral about the future of humanity. Earlier this month I interviewed Hao about the major themes of the book, including what AI regulation could look like it practise. Read the interview here.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Bell to open AI data centres in B.C.
Bell Canada announced this week that it will open six data centres in British Columbia to power AI models and applications, which the company says will make up the largest computing cluster in the country. The first data centre is expected to come online in June in Kamloops, with the second opening in Merritt by the end of the year.
Data centres are critical for running and training generative AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini, creating a surge in demand for the energy-hungry buildings all over the world. As the Globe’s Joe Castaldo reports, other provinces including Alberta are trying to attract companies to build AI data centres in their borders. But B.C. has a big advantage: access to clean hydropower. Read the full story here.
SOFTWARE
BlackBerry is nothing like the company whose smartphones once ruled the world
New tech helps keep drivers focused by detecting when they've fallen asleep.John Kealey/The Globe and Mail
Let’s get this out of the way first. Yes, BlackBerry is still around. As Globe tech reporter Sean Silcoff writes, the company that popularized the smartphone and built Waterloo, Ont., into a tech hub is now all in on software and services. Through its QNX subsidiary, it’s now a leading supplier to automakers of the sophisticated operating systems that underpin autonomous and advanced driver-assistance functions. If your car stops you from veering into oncoming traffic, you probably have BlackBerry to thank.
In the year and half since John Giamatteo became CEO of BlackBerry, Silcoff writes that “the company is on its most stable footing since the iPhone and Android blew up its business in the late 2000s.” Read the full story here.
What else we’re reading this week:
AI could consume more power than Bitcoin by the end of 2025 (The Verge)
AI video just took a startling leap in realism. Are we doomed? (Ars Technica)
Google is burying the web alive (New York Magazine)
Adult Money
ONLINE SHOPPING
Google Shop in AI Mode
In the latest example of tech companies putting AI in everything, Google will soon add AI to its shopping features. Users will be able to search for hyper specific items, such as “the best headphones to tune out a noisy newsroom,” and find browsable images and product listings. It’ll also introduce a new “agentic checkout.” If you buy an item and confirm the purchase details, the AI agent will add the item to your cart on the merchant’s site and complete the order using a Google Pay account. Agents have been touted as the next big thing in AI, so I’ll be watching for the uptake of this shopping feature.
Culture radar
VIDEO GAMES
After battling the tides of time, Ecco the Dolphin is making a comeback
The Sega game Ecco the Dolphin is making a comeback.Sega/Supplied
After more than 20 years lost at sea, Sega’s classic Ecco the Dolphin is swimming back to video game waters, the latest move in a growing trend of remastering games for modern consoles.
The game’s original creator, Ed Annunziata, revealed earlier this month in an interview with Xbox Wire that the popular game and its sequel, which both debuted in the 1990s, will return in remastered form. These repolished versions will make Sega’s beloved, yet sometimes disturbing, digital dolphin widely available for the first time in decades. No date for the launch of the remastered games has been announced, but the official Ecco the Dolphin website features an ominous ticking clock, counting down from 8,500 hours and into April of next year. Fans speculate this could be leading up to a full reveal of the remasters or even a new game in the franchise. Read the full story. - Jordyn Streisfield