Well this poor bastard (me) will be waiting for the RAM, SSDs, and hard drives to come back down in price.

“People need to have confidence in our processes in a society like ours,” Guilbeault said this week. “And if people don’t have trust in our processes, what’s going to happen is exactly what happened under prime minister Harper… Local communities, Indigenous organizations, environmental groups are going to turn to the tribunals because they won’t trust the process and we will end up in the same situation where those projects … will be bogged down in litigations, in local opposition and in some instances maybe national opposition, and we won’t be able to achieve the goals that we’ve set for ourselves.”

There’s a part of me that suspects this may be the end goal anyway. With the America-Israel-Iran conflict resulting in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the shift to multi-polarity, there’s a path forward to a future of renewables and EVs. I certainly imagine that the Americans wished they could have stayed in that race long enough to bring mass produced EVs of their own, but we all see where they’re headed. With experts projecting $100+ per barrel oil into the foreseeable future, this will bring pain to the world, and Canada is not spared.

The US certainly will remain a dominant player. But even its currency has seen better days, and no longer has the same unquestioned status as a global currency. As news broke out early May 2026 that the US debt has climbed over its GDP, the world is on notice that the Americans may not be the most reliable partner any longer. Americans should be rightly concerned that their current President has racked up trillions of dollars of debt within just 1.5 years of his term.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-debt-exceeds-gdp-first-time-since-wwii/

But that only confirms from the Canadian point of view that the US has been a rusted hulk of its former self, and they’re actually dragging us. Just five minutes reading headlines about Stellantis’ deals with the Canadian government should tell Canadians enough about the wrangling happening behind the scenes.

By cutting away any regulatory “red tape” as it were, Canada can satisfy some of the traditional polluters in the Oil and Gas sectors while still opening the door for renewables and Chinese EVs to enter the market further. Countries around the world have Chinese EVs available for their own markets, and the push away from fossil fuels for residential use is seen as a priority. EV battery technology has advanced to the point where they’re safer and long lasting. Bonus, the Japanese have figured out methods to recycle up to 90% of used batteries. Without meaningful partnerships with Chinese automakers, there’s no way Canadian car manufacturing can remain competitive while not getting completely wiped out by the Americans.

https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/japan-achieves-90-lithium-recovery-164753425.html

By opening the door to the Chinese automakers, Canada can put some pressure on even the Japanese automakers to get their act together or else.

We’ve also seen Alberta trip itself on its own two feet satisfying the Oil and Gas lobby and its minority extremist separatists. Both groups probably fell on their faces for failing to properly consult with First Nations properly.

How this looks for the environment front? Guilbeault basically spells it out for anyone who cares to listen: Don’t threaten him with a good time.

I wanted to add that while it’s good to talk about LLM’s, part of this discussion is to explore either alternatives to their use or ways to partner the use of LLM’s with real human interaction. CEO Hawk for Discourse recently shared a blog post deep dive into Digg, and offers how Discourse has features in place to build trust in users and the community as a whole. Some of these features involve turning on email sign ups, a tiered system of membership that builds trust over time and engagement that opens up more options to the user (increased post limits, access to chat, increased edit limits, options to attach files). As I recall, this includes badges that can be visible to the community to demonstrate progress and acceptance.

https://blog.discourse.org/2026/05/the-digg-lesson-why-moderation-infrastructure-matters/

I recognize that CEO Hawk takes a similar view of LLM’s in the sense that there’s a concern if LLM use is rampant, then a community cannot differentiate between authentic engagement vs the concern I raised of astroturfing. I agree that this is a threat to proper discussion, and the Fediverse must answer this threat. I do agree that a “trust system” does provide a lot of answers, and in some ways PieFed has already introduced some of these trust based features.

I think the use of AI or LLMs for the Fediverse is a fair topic of discussion. Instances are run by volunteers, and these instances are free to dictate how their communities are to be administered. These Instance Admins can determine the jurisdictions that they operate under, and the laws that they are subject to. I’d suggest then the use of “AI” or LLM products are a choice made by each Instance.

But, just as Instance admins have these powerful choices, I believe that end users should also be given notice that these products are expected to be used so they can decide to continue with their account or move. I also recall that when many “Redditors” decided to leave, they also made a lot of fuss about salting their posts so that their contents not be used as training material to develop a commercial LLM. I’d point out this was a time when Meta and others were found to be combing the internet, downloading pirated materials, and using these for training purposes.

In 2026, these LLMs have already taken these pirated materials and public social media posts. There are news articles of how failed start-ups are even selling their Slack and other work related chats as training materials as well. In time, perhaps these issues can be properly litigated in courts. But for social media Instances run by volunteers, resources are limited already. I don’t think these Instances should be responsible for the privacy of the end users. Rather, good education in generating throw-away email addresses, strong passwords, and VPN use can give users real choices.

While there’s an argument that posts should not have any expectation of privacy, that doesn’t mean we don’t collectively share an interest in the value of privacy - a human right. I don’t believe users who sign up for accounts on the Fediverse and are asked for their email to set up an account, expect in turn that information to just be published to the world with full, open access without some kind of notice or choice to opt out, for example. Ultimately though, I believe the issue must be dealt with at the government level, and that means people getting pitted against professional lobbyists and politicians.

I want to also clarify that there will also be times when intervention is necessary. We’re here to join together in community, and “AI” or LLM activity that ultimately attacks that objective should be a top issue. For example, I’m not sure anyone here would be comfortable with “AI” duplicating an Instance and impersonating the community members within it. Yet that did happen on Mastodon. I recall the community responding, making reports and complaints to ultimately get the instance taken down. Another example would be AI or LLM accounts that do not identify themselves as bots, and are here to post on the Fediverse to astroturf issues or manipulate discussion are clear threats to proper discussion.

But I don’t want to digress too far from the original concern, which was how people feel about LLMs processing Fediverse posts, and related issues. Assuming we are not discussing materials that are already restricted or illegal, we cannot control what people choose to share on these platforms of themselves, and I don’t suggest we even attempt or consider it. But we can try to control how much information these platforms retain about its users - and I suggest that should be as close to zero or nil as possible. In this way, even if an Instance admin faces terrible pressure from a state, the platform itself has as close to nothing additional to report or share besides the face value posts of an account.

I’d also want to point out that we all do some form of labelling or profiling as we go over posts or read. Is there a difference between what we do already, and what an LLM does to create an opinion to profile a collection of posts? Humans get it wrong all the time, as would any LLM for that matter. Computers are valued because they’re good at copying and pasting information. What changed exactly if one person copy and pastes for free and for themselves, vs another who copy and pastes on behalf of a third party for a fee? I’m not really inviting philosophical discussion, this is mostly a question for myself. Whether the copy and paste procedure is done once by hand or thousands of times by computer, I’m still weighing the question.

I think it comes down to exploitation of asymmetric information and the appropriate use of the profits from this exploitation. But I suppose that’s always been an evergreen issue.

I think with recent news of the data leak of Alberta voters information, it goes without saying that age verification, and the data leak that will follow, is part of the design.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/livestory/elections-alberta-electors-list-9.7182971

https://kopitalk.net/c/canada/p/431201/alberta-separatist-group-ordered-to-pull-down-list-with-millions-of-voters-personal-info

In awarding the plaintiff more than $1.8 million in damages, Marzari wrote that Paladin’s conduct was “deserving of condemnation and punishment” even beyond the injuries and trauma suffered by the plaintiff.

She wrote that the company admitted to “negligent training of its guards,” and that Paladin representatives failed to review the plaintiff’s serious allegations and consider corrective action in the years afterward.

“On the evidence before me, Paladin’s uncaring attitude is not a one-time occurrence, but part of the culture of how upper management responds to complaints of excessive force employed by their workforce,” Marzari wrote.

Paladin was basically found to have committed a systemic failure that led to discrimination, use of excessive force, and a complete disrespect of the rights of the plaintiff. See anyone else contracting with Paladin?

Wait…this is as far from innovation as it gets. I agree this is gambling on its face, but under the hood is basically a honey pot mechanism where you’re creating a market to price out leaks of confidential or sensitive information. I don’t think there’s anything of value here, just the introduction of vulnerability that cuts vertically all the way to the most vulnerable of society to government agents with potential conflicts of interest.

For all the bluster about the US taking down fascism in World War II, it is with ghastly irony that you have these figures within US society, like Karp and Zamiska, who out right advocate for basically racism and fascism. They simply couch their recycled old bigotry into the vague, covert lingo of the modern post-civil rights America.

But, they project what they want in society. They want less regulation upon themselves, they want more military contracts with the US government, they want the public to give more credibility to the power of their surveillance software, they want the draft so their software can go far and wide, and they want the ability to pay people less and to ask them to work more.

Then they go on to make some obligatory comment about how America has brought such peace and prosperity. And, somewhat tellingly, they wax nostalgia for fascist Germany and Japan. They just don’t say it in so few words. When the US SCOTUS declared that money can translate into political power, these unqualified persons are the symptoms.

I keep asking what the ASEAN members are thinking when they see this garbage while they’re days away from running out of gas and diesel.

A related question that comes to mind is what jurisdiction’s laws should we all be exploring to avoid age verification completely?

I’m not suggesting we all get legal degrees or dispense legal advice, but as conscientious people who are also literate: Should the Fediverse identify lists of these jurisdictions for its community of small to very large instances, and resources to help decide whether those laws of favourable jursidictions should be adopted and some common pitfalls?

We all see the headlines of countries exploring bans on under 16s for social media in the name of improved ad and online surveillance. Which are the countries who are saying no or will resist this?

I sympathize too, but these conditions have persisted for decades. People have sounded the alarm for decades.

Landowners get attention from legacy media, but it took a doctor who had to risk everything to sound the alarm for the people of Fort Chipewyan and beyond. Dr O’Connor faced complaints from his own College and defended himself. He must have felt like an island at that point.

In 2006, Dr. John O’Connor started raising concerns about disproportionately high rates of cancer in Fort Chipewyan, Alta., believing that nearby oilsands sites may have played a role.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-whistleblower-fort-chipewyan-john-o-connor-1.5943389

The US has slowly come alive to the issue of the world cutting them out of the conversation entirely with direct bilateral negotiations with Iran. This is the only way to forcefully inject the US back into the conversation. But as experts already point out, Iran has the home ground advantage. The US navy can maintain that position to block the strait, but antagonizing all of Asia will have consequences.

Asia’s countries face serious shortages of gas and diesel - which is well known. If the US presents itself as not just the cause, but now the enforcer of this very precarious position, many US allies will be forced into a terrible choice: Loyalty or survival.

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/finance/economy/south-korea-seeks-to-move-26-stranded-vessels-through-strait-of-hormuz-during-ceasefire

Canadians are being subjected to a new round of psychological operations on this very issue, and the Liberals are being lobbied to hell and back on the subject given how the news is pushing this.

We’re not new to the issue either. In Calgary the public reaction to a mall’s directory and map kiosk allegedly tracking age and gender data of people walking by was largely negative. American interests are trying to massage this back into the public consciousness.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4355444/chinook-mall-calgary-facial-recognition-technology/

I’m still in the camp that thinks this is a push by the ad and marketing companies to improve their targeting.

The world is savvy to invasions of privacy, and many users probably choose ad and tracking blockers of various kinds. I agree the kids need to be educated about this kind of targeting and manipulation, but I’m not sure another booze er…social media prohibition solves any problem.

As Citizen Lab points out, there’s big money and serious players behind all that targeting and surveillance. Why contribute to it?

https://kopitalk.net/c/canada/p/364736/kids-groups-say-they-didnt-know-openai-was-behind-their-child-safety-coalition

https://citizenlab.ca/research/analysis-of-penlinks-ad-based-geolocation-surveillance-tech/

This is PR and American propaganda for the real sauce last month where Reddit, Meta, and Google basically assumed the proper position and voluntarily gave DHS info.

They suffered reputational damage, and this is their government compensation package: a promotional up-do.

https://gizmodo.com/reddit-meta-and-google-voluntarily-gave-dhs-info-of-anti-ice-users-report-says-2000722279

Is anyone even going anymore? Anyone got the jet fuel to get there and back?

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I think part of the problem is the “West” is behind, and the Americans are basically having sleep terror attacks.

https://carnewschina.com/2026/01/29/europe-lags-20-years-behind-china-in-battery-technology-auto-expert-warns/

“In the battery sector, Europe is 20 years behind China,” Dudenhöffer stated, emphasizing that cooperation with Chinese suppliers has become essential for European manufacturers to remain competitive. This technological gap has created a situation where over 70% of batteries in electric vehicles sold in Europe by 2025 will be supplied by Chinese companies.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/cooperation-china-needed-achieve-germanys-2030-ev-target-analysis

Germany’s goal of having 15 million electric cars on roads by 2030 could be missed by up to 6 million cars without cooperation with China and improved regulations and incentives, said transport policy think tank Agora Verkehrswende. An analysis commissioned by the think tank and conducted by consultancy BCG found that a joint effort of domestic policy changes and the inclusion of Chinese carmakers is needed to achieve the target. High tariffs on Chinese imports, on the other hand, would lead to higher prices for customers and negatively impact the competitiveness of German carmakers.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/cff/2021/09/13/ask-the-experts-is-china-winning-the-electric-vehicle-race/

To sum up: In the first six months of 2021, China sold 912,000 full electric vehicles. This equals to 55% of worldwide sold battery-electric vehicles. For the full year, we expect 1.8 million BEV-sales in China. So the question is not whether China can win the race, but who will be second behind China – Europe or the USA?

Surely another sign that the US has everything under control and knows what they’re doing in Iran. /s

I don’t believe hallucination is the correct word when the AI is using algorithms to keep customers addicted and happy. I suggest this is the very same problem that Cambridge Analytica, Zuckerberg, and others have been doing from the start. AI is just branding, and the same addictive algorithms are applied to the public in unregulated fashion. Only difference is the branding is selling a story that AI is actually some kind of entity with the expectation of fantastic competence.

I’m sorry to say, it’s incredibly competent at making fools of us.

In all, ShinyHunters claims to have stolen close to 1 petabyte of data belonging to the company and many of its customers, many of whom use Telus Digital as a BPO provider for customer support operations. BleepingComputer has not been able to independently confirm the total size of the stolen data.

The threat actor shared the names of 28 well-known companies allegedly impacted by the breach. However, BleepingComputer will not disclose the names of these companies, as we have been unable to independently confirm whether they were impacted.

The threat actor says that much of the data for these customers relates to BPO services provided by Telus Digital, including customer support and call center outsourcing, agent performance ratings, AI-powered customer support tools, fraud detection and prevention, and content moderation solutions.

I believe Telus also handles healthcare data for Alberta and beyond. Do we know if that’s impacted?