SpaceX made progress in the second test flight of its Starship rocket, but the program’s success is still far from certain. 

What happened: The 400-foot tall rocket rose more than 100 kilometres, leaving Earth’s atmosphere and entering space before its booster exploded.

We’ve been glued to our phones following the drama unfolding at the world’s (arguably) most important AI company so that you don’t have to. 

What happened: OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT and widely regarded as one of the organizations at the forefront of AI research, is embroiled in a dramatic internal power struggle.

Our picks for what to eat, read, watch, and listen to this weekend.

On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Jennifer Quaid to talk about Canada’s competition laws and how they have shaped the country’s economy.

To the surprise and delight (emphasis on the surprise) of the world, Xi Jinping’s second face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden actually went pretty well. 

What happened: This week, Xi Jinping wooed politicians and business leaders during a four-day-long visit to San Francisco, where the Chinese President broke bread with America’s top political and business leaders at a $2,750-a-head welcome banquet. 

The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix happens tonight on the Las Vegas Strip. It’s F1’s glitziest, costliest event of the year — it also looks destined to be its biggest disappointment. 

Driving the news: Like countless Vegas visitors, F1 owner Liberty Group miscalculated a risky bet. The company lowered its profit expectations after ticket sales severely missed expectations, despite being the most expensive of any Grand Prix race this season. 

Just like making nachos at home is cheaper than getting them delivered from a restaurant, Microsoft hopes making its own computer chips will help rein in its AI costs.

What happened: Among the many AI-related announcements Microsoft made at its Ignite conference this week was a pair of new chips it will build itself, geared towards reducing the costs of delivering its sprawling suite of services.

In Mad Men, Don Draper pulled airline ads so they wouldn’t run next to newspaper stories about a plane crash. Now imagine if that was happening all the time, every day, to every online news site.

In a bid to spread holiday cheer (read: get folks spending), retailers are expected to offer steeper discounts earlier this year.

Driving the news: Many major shopping destinations started Black Friday sales two weeks in advance, experts told Bloomberg, and, per Square’s holiday retail report, Canadian retailers plan to offer shoppers an 18% discount on average (a higher rate than U.S. stores).

Like all of us in fourth-grade science class, Toyota is learning to reduce, reuse and recycle. 

What happened: Toyota will begin making batteries for some of its new electric and hybrid vehicles using recycled materials, including components from its old Prius models — part of a new deal with Redwood Materials that could have broad implications for the EV industry. 

If you’re like us, there’s a good chance your music career began and ended with high school band class. Now, YouTube’s new AI tools could make your popstar dreams a reality.

What happened: YouTube has launched Dream Track, its new generative AI tool that lets users create short pieces of music in the style of famous artists with a simple text prompt (i.e. “A sunny morning in Florida, R&B”) or hummed tune.

The body in charge of certifying family doctors in Canada is throwing the Uno reverse card at planned new training regulations.

What happened: The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) is rolling back a new rule that would have required an extra year of training for doctors entering family medicine.

Fed up with trying to crack the code of Tesla’s low manufacturing costs, GM decided it would just buy the EV maker’s secret weapon. 

Driving the news: General Motors has bought casting company Tooling & Equipment International (TEI), one of the manufacturing specialists that has allowed Tesla to produce vehicles at lower costs than its competitors, per Reuters. 

AI could force us to find a new go-to topic for small talk by bringing about a future where we already know everything about the weather.

Driving the news: A new study found that Google Deepmind’s AI weather model, called GraphCast, was more accurate than the leading conventional three-to-ten-day forecast system run by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). 

It’s not quite Matt Damon starting a potato field on Mars, but recent experiments could help make moon farms a real possibility.

The fall season brings colourful leaves, pumpkin spice lattes — and, if you work in tech, the unfortunate, looming spectre of layoffs.

What happened: Amazon cut 180 positions from its gaming division after shutting down its Crown streaming channel and Game Growth marketing platform. The company plans to focus its efforts on Prime Gaming, which has plans to release new Blue Protocol, Tomb Raider and Lord of the Rings games.

The half-million people who lived their dream of hearing Freddie Mercury cover System of a Down thanks to AI might soon be disappointed.

What happened: YouTube laid out its policy for AI-generated videos, which will make creators identify when videos have been created or altered using AI. It will also give people the ability to request the takedown of “deep fake” videos impersonating them.

Vaping is so 2021. These days, nicotine pouches are the vice of choice for many teens, and health experts are warning that it’s a serious problem.

Driving the news: A coalition of health advocacy groups, including the Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, are calling on Ottawa to create stricter regulations for nicotine pouches over concerns around their surging popularity with teens, per The Globe and Mail. 

Like us signing up for beer league hockey, Netflix is dipping its toes into sports just to see how things play out.  

What happened: If you flipped on Netflix last night, you probably noticed a live broadcast of something called The Netflix Cup, the streamer’s first-ever live sporting event. 

As Canada’s opioid crisis continues, new enforcement measures in China could help restrict the flow of deadly substances to our shores. 

Driving the news: The U.S. and China are expected to announce a new deal that will see China commit to cracking down on companies that export the chemicals used to make fentanyl — an extremely potent synthetic opioid drug with shockingly high mortality rates.