As 2024 nears, flying cars and teleporters are no closer to becoming a reality, but countries are hard at work devising digital currencies. That’s just as cool as those other things… right? 

What happened: South Korea is launching a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot next year, selecting 100,000 adventurous citizens to try spending with digital tokens

Today marks the one-year anniversary of an event that changed the world forever: The UN bestowing the baguette with protected heritage status… just kidding. 

Driving the news: It’s (somehow only) been one year since OpenAI unlatched Pandora’s Box of generative AI and publicly released ChatGPT. The chatbot was an overnight sensation, gaining 1 million users in five days, peaking with 1.8 billion monthly users in May. 

Canadians will get to keep (some of) their access to news, now that the government has reached a deal with Google over the controversial Online News Act. 

What happened: After months of tense negotiations, Google has agreed to pony up $100 million a year for the Canadian news content hosted on its platform, part of an effort to compensate media companies for the advertising revenue that has been lost to Big Tech. 

What might be the least desirable job in all of Canadian tech — helping the government update thousands of aging software platforms and apps — is about to become vacant.

What happened: Catherine Luelo, the government’s chief information officer, will be leaving her post in December after roughly two years on the job. A letter to staff did not give a reason for her departure.

Regulators might be playing catch-up when it comes to keeping the tech sector competitive, but they are working hard to make up for lost time.

What happened: The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has effectively blocked Adobe’s US $20 billion acquisition of Figma until the companies remedy anti-competitive issues it has identified.

The days of wondering if those leftovers you’ve had in your fridge for a week are still good or not (before eating them anyway and just hoping for the best) may be coming to an end. 

What happened: An Israeli company has developed an “electronic nose” called Sensifi that uses AI to detect when harmful bacteria has contaminated food. 

One of the foremost researchers in artificial intelligence is hoping people will keep an “open mind” about where his new lab is getting its money.

What happened: Openmind, a new AI research lab from Canadian AI pioneer Richard Sutton, is getting $4.8 million in funding from Chinese technology giant Huawei.

If you’ve been wondering what “EA” means as you’ve been reading about the Sam Altman/OpenAI saga or why those “e/acc” accounts on X are so riled up about it, now might be a good time to get up to speed.

The fallout at OpenAI escalated from “spicy corporate drama” to “arbiter of humanity’s fate” real quick. 

Driving the news: Several OpenAI staffers allegedly sent a letter to the board of directors days before Sam Altman’s abrupt dismissal, warning about a new development with the potential to threaten human existence, per reporting by Reuters and The Information.

After a whirlwind five days that included teary breakdowns, a pizza party, and even the launch of a new product, Sam Altman is once again CEO of OpenAI. 

What happened: Sam Altman returned to lead OpenAI, the ChatGPT creator that has become the buzziest name in AI, after being unceremoniously dumped last week. The move came after Microsoft offered Altman a job, and nearly every employee threatened to quit.