Welcome back to Lately, the Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. We’re still newish around here and would love to hear from readers. Have any feedback? Send me an e-mail and let me know what you think.
In this week’s issue:
🤑 Canadian AI startup gets US$500-million in funding
🙅🏻♀️ A US$23-billion tech deal falls through
🔧 The fight against ‘planned obsolescence’
💧 Taking the plunge with longevity influencers
Massive financing for a Canadian AI startup, with a side of skepticism
Nick Frosst, the cofounder of Cohere.Christopher Katsarov /The Globe and Mail
Cohere, the homegrown AI startup taking on OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, has raised US$500-million in new financing, bringing its latest valuation to US$5.5-billion. The company’s valuation has more than doubled since last June, a sign not only of the investor enthusiasm for Cohere, but of the bullish – some skeptics might argue bubbly – sentiment toward generative AI more broadly, writes Globe reporter Joe Castaldo. Yet as these valuations soar, the drive for AI companies to actually make money and to be used in more real-world business settings is becoming more important.
Are you reading this newsletter on the web? If so, you can sign up for the Lately newsletter.
Google’s US$23-billion plan to buy startup Wiz falls through
Last week I wrote about Google’s plans to snap up cybersecurity startup Wiz for US$23-billion, which would’ve been the tech giant’s largest acquisition to date. On Monday, however, the deal was called off and the privately held company said it’s pursuing an initial public offering. Wiz’s CEO Assaf Rappaport said the offer was “humbling,” which is the most nonchalant way imaginable to describe turning down tens of billions of dollars.
Fighting against ‘planned obsolescence’
A gadget gets fixed by a DIY enthusiast at a "repair café" in Vancouver.Tijana Martin /The Globe and Mail
There’s nothing more frustrating than shelling out on a pricey tech gadget or appliance, only for it to break in a couple years. That’s by design. It’s called “planned obsolescence,” when companies intentionally build products with a limited lifespan so they need to be upgraded or replaced, in a business practice that’s frustrated consumers and filled our landfills with e-waste. And because these devices aren’t made for DIY repairs, they can be costly or difficult to fix. Instead, we chuck it and buy a new one.
A growing movement of DIY enthusiasts and environmentalists are calling on manufacturers to be legally required to provide the tools, parts and manuals to make repairs. And it’s starting to gain steam. Spurred by proposed right-to-repair legislation in Canada, as well as new laws in 25 U.S. states, tech companies are finally starting to get on board. By this fall, Apple will provide the tools and certified parts to make some fixes to dead batteries or cracked screens. It’s a step forward, but there are still hurdles. Apple enforces something called “parts pairing,” which forces the consumer to buy only Apple-verified parts, or features like Face ID may refuse to work.
Amazon’s speaker was envisioned to be a conduit to sell stuff. People just use it as a timer
When Amazon launched Echo with its Alexa voice assistant in 2014, the company’s goal was to get the speaker into millions of homes and then have those millions of customers use it to buy stuff from Amazon. But that didn’t happen. Instead, most people use the speaker to set alarms or check the time. “We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer,” said a former senior employee to the Wall Street Journal. The paper reported that between 2017 and 2021, Amazon’s entire devices business, which also includes Kindle and video doorbells, has lost more than US$25-billion. The company is betting that a new subscription service can make Echo profitable, but some engineers working on the project worry that won’t be enough to bring them into the black either.
What else we’re reading this week:
The AI job interviewer will see you now (Rest of World)
How Russia-linked malware cut heat to 600 Ukrainian buildings in deep winter (WIRED)
Meta releases the biggest and best open-source AI model yet (The Verge)
Soundbite
”If we start thinking about taste as something that one can cultivate, it might encourage more people to use the internet to find strange work online.” – Lauren Oyler, cultural critic and author of No Judgment, on the death of criticism and the rise of the algorithm, as heard on this week’s episode of Lately.
Adult Money
Taking a cold plunge in the desert makes sense.Plunge
Culture Radar
Charli XCX says the veep is brat.Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
British pop star Charli XCX says Kamala Harris is brat. The Internet – and the Harris campaign – agrees
Kamala Harris is not yet the Democratic Party’s official candidate for president but her status online is already clear: she is brat. On Sunday, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris, British pop star Charli XCX officially anointed her with the title, writing “Kamala Harris IS brat” on X. It’s a reference to her recent album of the same name, speaking to a lifestyle that’s maybe a little messy and chaotic but wholly one’s own, that’s been embraced all over TikTok this summer.
In the last week, memes featuring video clips of Harris dancing and joking against Charli XCX tracks have exploded online, a phenomenon the Harris campaign is hoping can boost her image in the eyes of Gen Z. Whether this grassroots-born enthusiasm will transfer to the ballot box on Nov. 5 is yet to be seen, but Chris Mowrey, a Democratic social media influencer, seems to think so: “Young voters vote significantly more based on just personality and, like, vibes.”
More tech and telecom news:
Legal battle that could upend Dye & Durham board pits founding brothers against each other
Dinner with total strangers? There’s an app for that
WestJet partners with Telus to give rewards members free satellite internet service