AI CEO

Markets: Canada’s main stock index rose by the most it had in five weeks yesterday, on renewed investor optimism that the conflict in Iran (and its many economic complications) could soon be resolved.

After years of trying to convince the world he’s not a robot (and drinks water like a normal human), Mark Zuckerberg is finally steering into the skid. 

Driving the news: Meta’s head honcho is building his own personal AI agent to serve as a sort of second CEO, per The Wall Street Journal. The agent’s still being built, but it’s already helping Zuck collect information from across the company faster and communicate with employees on his behalf. 

Catch-up: Many of these autonomous tools are built on OpenClaw, a framework for operating continuously running AI agents. These individual “Claws” can access your files, talk to people, and automatically carry out tasks on your behalf.

Why it matters: These personal AI agents are being pitched as the future of the workplace, freeing up time for workers, saving money for businesses, and increasing overall productivity. As Jensen Huang put it at a Nvidia conference last week, “Every single company needs an OpenClaw strategy."

Yes, but: Trusting these AI agents to act autonomously comes with its risks. Anecdotes abound of users accidentally wiping their hard drives or inboxes, and one of Meta’s in-house agents recently went rogue and posted advice to a company forum without approval from an employee. That advice, which one worker acted on, ended up compromising sensitive company and customer data.—LA

Two Air Canada pilots killed in crash at LaGuardia Airport. A flight from Montreal landing in New York crashed into a fire truck on the tarmac, killing both pilots and injuring over 40 passengers. The fire truck was responding to an emergency on the runway and was briefly given permission to cross before an air traffic controller tried to stop them. The controller said on the radio, “We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” (CBC News)

Auditor general says Ottawa went overboard with foreign student cuts. In a report released yesterday, Karen Hogan found that the feds drastically overshot the mark in trying to ease the number of international students let into the country, with admissions falling well below the government's target levels in all 10 provinces. The report also found that Canada does not have a proper system in place to track whether students actually leave the country after graduating. (The Logic)

Trump delayed power plant strikes after “productive” talks with Iran. The U.S. president said yesterday that he wants to make a deal with Iran, and that the two countries held very productive talks over the past few days. Trump threatened over the weekend to bomb Iranian energy sites if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reopened in 48 hours, but has since extended that deadline to five days. Iran denied that negotiations were taking place. (Associated Press) 

📡 What else is on our radar: 

What they’re saying: "Last time I checked out there, that's a pretty big lake, and a few thousand feet aren't gonna disturb too many things," said Ontario Premier Doug Ford in response to a question about how expanded runways at Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport would impact Lake Ontario. 

Why it matters: Many environmentalists don’t share Ford’s opinion, but the premier isn’t likely to be swayed, as he is more focused on the potential economic impact. He said yesterday that he will declare Billy Bishop a “special economic zone,” which will let him bypass provincial and municipal laws restricting the expansion. The City of Toronto has raised concerns that Ford’s airport plan would limit how much new housing could be built nearby and that noise could hurt the city’s film industry, much of which is by the waterfront.

Good news: there are a lot of potential paid opportunities for unemployed stunt drivers right now. Bad news: these gigs aren’t above board, legally speaking.

Driving the news: Staged auto collisions surged some 400% last year in Canada, according to recently released data from Aviva Insurance’s claims investigation unit. There were an estimated 1,066 faked crashes; that’s a lot of fraudulent fender-benders and untrue T-bones.

How it works: Scammers will buy used cars for cheap and roll back odometers to increase their perceived value or enroll others to use their own cars. They will then either stage crashes with participants or implicate unknowing drivers by purposely causing a collision. 

Why it’s happening: Organized crime groups in Canada are now running increasingly sophisticated operations to take advantage of loopholes in Canada's insurance infrastructure. For example, finding ways to purposely crash cars where they won’t appear legally at fault.

Why it matters: The surge is bad news all around: scammers use the claims to fund more criminal activities, false payouts add up for insurers who pass the cost down to law-abiding customers, and lives are put at risk with more of these staged crashes taking place on busy highways.—QH

🇨🇦 $20 million. Funding raised by BKR Capital for a new VC fund backing Black entrepreneurs in Canada. BKR — which is Canada’s first institutionally backed Black-led venture fund — has already invested in 15 tech companies through its first fund and is looking to raise $50 million by the end of the year for its new one.

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