Business
Taxpayers Federation urges Calgary Liberal MP to stand against carbon tax
By Kris Sims
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Calgary MP George Chahal to stick up for his constituents and oppose the federal carbon tax ahead of the next Liberal caucus meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 23.
“Why is it that only Liberal MPs from Atlantic Canada are sticking up for their constituents and pushing back against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax?” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Calgarians are getting hammered by the carbon tax and they need Chahal to stick up for them.”
With news of a potential government caucus revolt brewing in Ottawa over the carbon tax, the CTF held a news conference in front of the office of Calgary’s lone Liberal MP in those caucus meetings.
A new report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer found the carbon tax will cost the average Alberta household $213 this year more than the rebates. By 2030, that cost jumps up to $697.
The federal government also charges its GST on top of the carbon tax. The PBO report shows this carbon tax-on-tax will cost taxpayers $400 million this year. That money isn’t rebated back to Canadians.
“Alberta families will have to pay more than $400 extra in the carbon tax to heat their homes this winter and it’s up to our Calgary MP, Mr. Chahal, to stop being a chicken and speak up for his constituents,” Sims said. “Chahal has so far chickened out on standing up for his constituents, but he can redeem himself by plucking up the courage and opposing Trudeau’s carbon tax.”
A person in a bright yellow chicken suit danced during the CTF’s news conference.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI and Microsoft negotiations require definition of “artificial general intelligence”
From The Deep View
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OpenAI’s bargaining chip
| A couple of relatively significant stories broke late last week concerning the — seemingly tenuous — partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft. | |
| The background: OpenAI first turned to Microsoft back in 2019, after the startup lost access to Elon Musk’s billions. Microsoft — which has now sunk more than $13 billion into the ChatGPT-maker — has developed a partnership with OpenAI, where Microsoft provides the compute (and the money) and OpenAI gives Microsoft access to its generative technology. OpenAI’s tech, for instance, powers Microsoft’s Copilot. | |
| According to the New York Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last year asked Microsoft for more cash. But Microsoft, concerned about the highly publicized boardroom drama that was rocking the startup, declined. | |
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| Microsoft, meanwhile, has been expanding its portfolio of AI startups, recently bringing the bulk of the Inflection team on board in a $650 million deal. | |
| Now, the terms of OpenAI’s latest funding round were somewhat unusual. The investment was predicated on an assurance that OpenAI would transition into a fully for-profit corporation. If the company has not done so within two years, investors can ask for their money back. | |
| According to the Wall Street Journal, an element of the ongoing negotiation between OpenAI and Microsoft has to do with this restructuring, specifically, how Microsoft’s $14 billion investment will transfer into equity in the soon-to-be for-profit company. | |
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| Here’s where things get really interesting: OpenAI isn’t a normal company. It’s mission is to build a hypothetical artificial general intelligence, a theoretical technology that is pointedly lacking in any sort of universal definition. The general idea here is that it would possess, at least, human-adjacent cognitive capabilities; some researchers don’t think it’ll ever be possible. | |
| There’s a clause in OpenAI’s contract with Microsoft that if OpenAI achieves AGI, Microsoft gets cut off. OpenAI’s “board determines when we’ve attained AGI. Again, by AGI we mean a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work. Such a system is excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft, which only apply to pre-AGI technology.” | |
| To quote from the Times: “the clause was meant to ensure that a company like Microsoft did not misuse this machine of the future, but today, OpenAI executives see it as a path to a better contract, according to a person familiar with the company’s negotiations.” | |
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| This is a good example of why the context behind definitions matters so much when discussing anything in this field. There is a definitional problem throughout the field of AI. Many researchers dislike the term “AI” itself; it’s a misnomer — we don’t have an actual artificial intelligence. | |
| The term “intelligence,” is itself vague and open to the interpretation of the developer in question. | |
| And the term “AGI” is as formless as it gets. Unlike physics, for example, where gravity is a known, hard, agreed-upon concept, AGI is theoretical, hypothetical science; further, it is a theory that is bounded by resource limitations and massive limitations in understanding around human cognition, sentience, consciousness and intelligence, and how these all fit together physically. | |
| This doesn’t erase the fact that the labs are trying hard to get there. | |
| But what this environment could allow for is a misplaced, contextually unstable definition of AGI that OpenAI pens as a ticket either out from under Microsoft’s thumb, or as a means of negotiating the contract of Sam Altman’s dreams. | |
| In other words, OpenAI saying it has achieved AGI, doesn’t mean that it has. | |
| As Thomas G. Dietterich, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Oregon State University said: “I always suspected that the road to achieve AGI was through redefining it.” |
Alberta
Alberta investors now have more options for securing cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
Bringing balance to Alberta’s financial system
Balance Trust Company has officially been registered as an Alberta-based trust corporation under the Loan and Trust Corporations Act.
On Oct. 17, Alberta’s government issued the company its certificate of registration, enabling it to offer cryptocurrency and other digital asset custodial services to investors in Alberta and other authorized jurisdictions.
“We are proud to support innovative companies like Balance Trust Company. With its registration, Alberta strengthens its position as a leader in the finance and financial technology sector. Our commitment to the sector’s growth keeps us at the forefront of financial innovation, boosts our economy and provides greater security for investors.”
Balance Trust Company leveraged Alberta’s financial services concierge, a service designed to guide financial services and fintech companies through the province’s regulatory landscape. Alberta’s government established the financial services concierge and regulatory sandbox to help companies set up shop in Alberta.
With Canada’s digital asset market continuing to grow, the presence of more licensed custodians reduces Canadian investors’ reliance on foreign entities, enhancing compliance and control over their investments. Balance Trust Company’s presence in Alberta will promote healthy competition, attract further investment and reinforce the province’s reputation as a hub for financial innovation.
“Since 2021, public fund managers and restricted dealers have sent more than $5 billion worth of investor assets to the U.S. due to the lack of local custodians. It’s time to bring them back, and I can’t think of a better home for those assets than Alberta. We’re grateful to Minister Horner and the entire team at the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance for recognizing the criticality of this task and for enabling us to bring this much-needed infrastructure to our local ecosystem.”
Quick facts
- Balance Trust Company is a subsidiary of Balance, Canada’s oldest and largest digital asset custodian.
- Balance Trust Company is Alberta’s second registered digital asset custodian, after Tetra Trust which was registered in 2021.
- Balance Trust Company is the only custodian with a proprietary technology platform developed entirely in-house through more than seven years of continuous research and development.
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