If you watched this year’s record-breaking Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, or the opening ceremony of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, then you experienced the work of a longstanding Montréal special effects company. “When we started the company 20 years ago, activating at an event like this felt like a dream.” PixMob, which produces…
How do robots touch and feel? As AI systems enter the physical world—from robots on the factory floor to surgical arms in operating rooms—the data associated with that question is becoming more and more valuable. “There are going to be 10 billion robots on the planet by 2050. They’re going to need steering wheels.” That…
Sometimes you just need to get home and decompress after work. Sure, your car is low on fuel and needs to be topped up, but who cares? When you wake up the next morning, it will magically be full, and you can watch TV guilt-free, right? “It’s white-glove service: you park your car, you go…
During the apex of COVID-19, respiratory viruses, and flu season, Alexandre Clarizio went to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics for his wife and daughter. He encountered something many Canadians have run into over the past few years: a shortage. “I was flabbergasted,” Clarizio said in an interview with BetaKit. “Why do we have shortages…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM It’s not just you; winter really can bring a certain mood. The shorter days, chilly weather, and long, dark evenings can leave anyone feeling a bit off or down. But have you ever looked at your dog curled up, snoozing more than usual, and wondered are they feeling it…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL On a chilly, damp evening in south London, a group of runners is doing something a little different. There are no weight racks, treadmills, or gym mirrors in sight. Instead, on a rooftop garden tucked above a concrete car park, they’re shoveling compost, clearing weeds, and smiling through the mud….
In September of last year, AI Minister Evan Solomon commissioned a task force of some 30 members with one simple ask: what the hell should Canada do about AI? This month, the federal government released the results: some 30 submissions and 300 supplementary documents, alongside thousands of responses from public consultations. “If we don’t get…
An Edmonton-based FinTech company that manages tips and staff wages is in hot water after dozens of customers in British Columbia say it abruptly stopped distributing money, leaving some businesses in the hole for tens of thousands of dollars. Global News reports that clients of Everyday Payments allege money from the digital wallets the platform…
Over the past decade, Josh Ogden has watched Canada’s robotic industry shift away from building core technologies and towards assembling systems that are designed elsewhere. It wasn’t always this way. Canadian companies like Aeryon Labs and Deep Trekker developed military-grade platforms and specialized robotics, owning both the technology and the manufacturing. But many were later…
Halifax’s pHathom Technologies has secured $4 million in seed funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ocean-based bioenergy facilities. pHathom plans to use this capital to pilot its coastal carbon-capture technology in projects across Atlantic Canada. Those projects will ideally help the company refine and validate its approach to prepare it for wider deployment. “This…
