Author: David Reyes

The way large Canadian corporations now announce layoffs has an almost ritualistic quality. A brief statement in the late afternoon. An ambiguous statement about change. a reluctance to disclose numbers. Even though Canadian Tire’s July announcement was nearly exactly as written, the response in Toronto’s business circles felt different. heavier. quieter. Perhaps because everyone was aware that there would be more cuts. On July 29, the company announced that it had removed an undisclosed number of corporate positions, justifying the move as a modernization initiative. The statement said, almost defensively, that no store employees were impacted. This distinction is important…

Compared to six months ago, the current state of the markets feels different. Investors who anticipated two or even three rate cuts this year are now adjusting to the possibility that the Federal Reserve may not be in any rush at all. This is a much quieter and more unsettling possibility. The cuts might eventually appear. However, the certainty has vanished. Furthermore, a lack of certainty carries weight in finance. At the meeting in March, Jerome Powell made no dramatic remarks. Seldom does he. However, the tone changed in some way. If inflation doesn’t behave, he hinted that rates might…

A series of glass-fronted offices that were nonexistent ten years ago are passed by the taxi on its way from Jomo Kenyatta International to Nairobi’s Westlands neighborhood. Swahili, Kikuyu, and Luo—languages that the majority of foundation models still treat as afterthoughts—are being used by a small team inside one of them to train a language model. Outside, vendors use their phones to pay for fruit, just as they did long before the term “fintech” became popular in San Francisco. The contrast between the new urgency of artificial intelligence and the old habit of leapfrogging reveals something about the true nature…

Like most announcements, it was made on a Tuesday, after the market closed, in a paragraph that was so dense you had to read it twice. 11% of Freshworks’ employees would be let go. 500 or so. In prolonged trading, the stock dropped more than 8%, a reaction that suggests investors had been anticipating something, but perhaps not this. However, the number isn’t what makes the Freshworks story compelling. The CEO of the company, Dennis Woodside, stated almost casually that artificial intelligence now writes more than half of Freshworks’ code. When spoken aloud in plain English, the line causes discomfort.…

In the video that went viral late last week, Ben Shapiro finally acknowledged what reporters had been pursuing for weeks, and he appeared unusually exhausted. He claimed that since January, The Daily Wire had reduced its workforce by about 13%. He described it as “truly sad.” He claimed to be personally assisting the laid-off employees in finding new employment. It was the kind of statement that falls somewhere between a press release and a confession, and it didn’t fully conceal the fact that one of the most aggressive brands in conservative media has been quietly cracking. If you were paying…

When you first arrive in Sault Ste. The steel plant announces itself before the city does, according to Marie from the south. The slow moan of industry, scaffolding, and smoke. Located a few kilometers away, Algoma University is a smaller, more subdued institution that has spent years attempting to face its past as a residential school. Students still know their professors by first name on this type of campus. which contributes to the uncomfortable feeling of the present. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation vigorously opposed Algoma’s presentation of its operating budget for 2026–2027 as a “fiscal reality for a…

The definition of “arms race” subtly shifted somewhere between the hush of a Pentagon briefing room and the excitement of a Silicon Valley keynote. It used to refer to submarines floating beneath polar ice and missiles in silos. These days, more electricity is consumed by rows of humming servers in rural Oregon, Virginia, and Inner Mongolia than by entire cities. There are no bunkers containing the weapons. They are seated in data centers. As this develops, it seems as though those in charge haven’t decided how concerned to be. The way American officials discuss AI is similar to how their…

I was at a loss for words when a friend first revealed that she had been “talking” to her deceased father via an app. We were seated at an old-fashioned café with chipped marble tables and a ceiling fan that swayed every few minutes. Almost shyly, she slid her phone over to me. The speaker’s voice was thin and had a slightly irregular cadence, but its phrasing was unmistakable. She grinned. She then shed a few tears. She then placed another coffee order. Every time the topic of AI therapists and griefbots comes up, which is increasingly common these days,…

In a short, seemingly unremarkable moment, the whole thing is revealed. You find that everyone else in the room is doing exactly what you were just doing when you look up from your phone while sitting in a café with mismatched chairs and a slow espresso machine. Nobody is talking. Indeed, no one seems to be unhappy. But in reality, nobody is there either. It’s hard to deny that this scene, which appears frequently in places like Brooklyn and Karachi, has somehow become the standard in public life. Ignoring the evidence that supports that observation is becoming more difficult. A…

When people know something is about to happen but no one wants to say it aloud, a certain kind of silence descends upon a corporate tower. You can practically feel it when you walk past the elevators at Rio Tinto’s St Georges Terrace office in Perth these days. Discussions stall. Coffee runs take more time. According to most accounts, the atmosphere is somewhere between rattled and resigned. There are a lot of numbers floating around the building. Up to 20% of Perth’s white-collar workforce may be let go before the new fiscal year starts, according to people close to the…