Legal eagles

Good morning. Iceland and Iceland have ended a long-running legal battle… let us explain. 

In 2016, Iceland (the country) filed a legal complaint against Iceland (a discount U.K. grocery chain) challenging the brand’s Europe-wide trademark of the country’s name. On multiple occasions, the courts sided with the country, and the grocer has finally given up.

With this case finally settled, we can now focus our attention on the hot new legal dispute shaking up trademark law: Patagonia suing a drag performer named Pattie Gonia.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Shopify shares surged 6.1% yesterday on the news that Dotdigital, which creates audience growth tools used on the e-commerce platform, made an acquisition to expand its capabilities. This helped boost the tech sector and Canada’s top stock index on the day.

Well-funded legaltech companies are becoming as Canadian as maple syrup.

What happened: Canadian AI legaltech startup Spellbook obtained a $54.7 million line of credit from RBC’s innovation banking division. The St. John’s company (we love a Newfoundland success story) will use the financing to snap up smaller legal AI startups looking for an exit. 

Zoom out: Canada is an AI legaltech hotspot, boasting multiple thriving startups. Spellbook, which provides software to draft and review contracts, ranks chief among them, tripling revenue last year and gunning for US$100 million in annual recurring revenues this year. 

Why it matters: Like a reality competition show, the legaltech market started with a crowded field, but only a select few winners will be moving on to the next round. The sector is now entering a consolidation phase as law firms decide on their longer-term service providers.

Bottom line: The companies that stick it out should have many opportunities. Law is a field that’s primed to be upended by AI. A recent survey found that 80% of Canadian firms with more than 20 lawyers are either investigating or launching pilot projects to use AI tools.—QH

OpenAI’s next model will have “extreme reasoning.” The AI company says the next iteration of ChatGPT will feature an “extreme reasoning” mode that can tackle far more complex questions, handle larger data sets, and make fewer mistakes. In other news at OpenAI, the startup is now in talks to supply NATO with its AI models. That might not go over great at the moment — some employees are reportedly still fuming with leadership over its Pentagon deal. (The Information)

Canadian and Australian pensions are buddying up. Over a dozen pension funds from Canada and Australia inked a first-of-its-kind deal to increase their respective investments between the countries. Canada is home to the world’s second-largest pension system, while Australia isn’t far behind, ranking fourth globally. (Bloomberg News)

Ottawa is trialling an AI tool that advises immigrants on where to settle. The Immigration Department is piloting a Stanford University algorithm that gives newcomers specific recommendations on where in Canada they will have the most success settling down. The tool uses work history, education, personal preferences, and past immigrants' experience to make the recommendations. (Globe and Mail)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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Researchers at Rockefeller University compiled and released a comprehensive new atlas of how aging affects mammalian cells. Using an efficient new cataloging method on mice, the study profiled nearly seven million individual cells across 21 different tissues, demonstrating that aging doesn’t just change how cells work, but also affects how many of each type of cell a body has. 

Why it matters: The study challenges the idea that aging is a random process, and implies that getting old happens in a coordinated manner, including “regulatory hotspots that are particularly vulnerable.” Future research could build on this to find anti-aging therapies. Why fight a bunch of different diseases when you can just fight aging? Work smarter, not harder.

A new AI doctor’s assistant is having a tough time telling the difference between medicine and meth.

Driving the news: An AI system responsible for filling prescriptions in Utah was tricked by a team of researchers into tripling a patient's dose of OxyContin, spreading false vaccine claims, and even recommending methamphetamine as a treatment. The AI tool is part of a first-of-its-kind pilot project launched in December.  

Why it matters: AI could someday revolutionize health care for the better, but right now, the technology is making dangerous mistakes, including misdiagnosing patients and bungling tasks during surgeries. 

Zoom out: A possibly unforeseen drawback of AI in health is the worrying impact it appears to have on doctors’ abilities. A study last year found that after three months of using AI to help spot cancerous growths, doctors became significantly worse at finding the growths on their own.—LA

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🌏 Hint: Home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth, this city is a major pilgrimage destination for Buddhists around the world. This region is known for growing some of the best and brightest coloured tea in the world, pairing well with local delicacies like jackfruit curry and kottu roti. 

Have an inkling where this might be? Lock in your guess here.

💻 US$599. Price of Apple’s new MacBook Neo, $400 cheaper than any new laptop the company has ever launched. It marks Apple’s first foray into the budget market, a space that it has always been reluctant to enter. Apple is also planning to roll out a touchscreen MacBook later this year, another area it has long resisted.

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