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Xanadu closes $100 million USD Series C as quantum computing firm becomes Canada’s latest unicorn (BETAKIT)

Xanadu reportedly tripled its valuation, which The Globe and Mail reported as an estimate of $400 million last year. This comes amid the continued dip in startup valuations as inflation, geopolitical issues, and changing consumer trends negatively impact the private and public markets.

Amazon envisions its new Sparrow robot performing the most common warehouse tasks, according to a company patent. ‘This will take my job,’ one worker said. (INSIDER)

Amazon’s newest robot could one day take the place of many human workers across its giant fulfillment network, generating apprehension among some of the company’s more than 750,000 warehouse employees in the United States.

Meta mass layoffs hit Canada less than a year after major expansion plans (BETAKIT)

The layoffs come eight months after Meta made a commitment to hire up to 2,500 people across Canada over the next five years as part of a new Canadian engineering hub.

Ontario AI sector saw big job gains recently, but won’t be unscathed by downturn: report (TORONTO STAR)

The report released Thursday said 22,458 AI jobs were created in Ontario between April 2021 and March 2022, up 210 per cent from the previous year. Another 59,673 AI jobs were retained in that period, a 334 per cent increase from the prior year.

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Louis Têtu explains how Coveo is bucking tech trends ahead of SAAS NORTH keynote (BETAKIT)

Ahead of his SAAS NORTH talk on the BetaKit Keynote Stage, we sat down with Têtu to discuss why Coveo continues to buck tech trends, and tease some of the predictions the CEO will provide in Ottawa next week.

Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s ‘Ethical AI’ team (WIRED)

As part of an aggressive plan to trim costs that involves firing thousands of Twitter employees, Musk’s management team cut a team of artificial intelligence researchers who were working toward making Twitter’s algorithms more transparent and fair.

How Poseidon Ocean Systems pivoted internationally when domestic opportunity dried up (BETAKIT)

Speaking with BetaKit, Clarke explained Poseidon’s journey, how she stumbled upon her big opportunity, and how she managed the process of commercializing two products globally.

Thomson Reuters to acquire tax automation company SurePrep for $500M (TECHCRUNCH)

The transaction, which Thomson Reuters said it expects to close in Q1 2023, values SurePrep at $500 million, which will be paid entirely in cash.

Founded in 2002, SurePrep is one of numerous software providers that help tax professionals and accountants gather and file 1040 tax returns on behalf of their clients.sington’s last fund of funds, which was $150 million.

With Passage acquisition 1Password prepares to battle tech giants for passwordless future (BETAKIT)

When Shiner took over the reins at Agile Bits—the company that would eventually morph into 1Password—ten years ago, it was a small development shop based in Toronto. By January of this year, the company was valued at $6.8 billion, following a $744 million CAD Series C round.

IBM unveils new chip in push to realize quantum computing’s promise (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

IBM is aiming to steadily build that computing power in the years ahead. The company said it plans to introduce a more than 4,000-qubit system in 2025, which would be able to solve some problems faster or more accurately than classical computers, as well as provide exact solutions to problems the best of today’s computers can only estimate, achieving a milestone known as “quantum advantage.”

Google opens new Montréal office, commits $2.75 million to Québec tech (BETAKIT)

Fabrice Jaubert, the Montréal site lead for Google Canada, said that the Viger office will be home to a variety of teams that will work on some of “the most crucial” Google products and services such as cybersecurity, AI research, Chrome, and Cloud.

Your own personal Google: how Mem plans to reinvent note-taking apps with AI (THE VERGE)

What if you had access to everything the internet knows about you, and what if you could use it to make your life better? That’s what Mem is trying to figure out.

Robots? some companies find only humans can do the job (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

In retail, fast food and delivery, robots with names like Roxo, Rita and Scout have delivered mixed, sometimes quirky results, at costs some companies find too high. In the best of cases, the robots are taking the strain off their human co-workers.

The post A|I: The AI Times – Canada’s latest unicorn is a quantum computing firm first appeared on BetaKit.