Halton regional police in Ontario are using artificial intelligence in the recruitment and training of 911 call takers and dispatchers. 

The force said American AI firm GovWorx provides the technology to create emergency call simulations to help 911 applicants improve their decision-making, communication and crisis management skills.

Halton police 911 communications bureau manager Brian Dodd said the new technology helps the force identify the right candidates from the beginning of the hiring process. 

He said the department has been facing a staffing crisis because not all candidates applying for 911 jobs succeed in their training after they are hired. 

There is a great scene in a recent episode of the HBO Max comedy Hacks, in which comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), takes a meeting with a Tech Bro who wants her to train an LLM (large language model) in her style of comedy so that people can write funnier bridesmaid speeches, essentially. Her collaborator/head writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) has reservations.

“AI is here and it’s here to stay, so you either get on board or you get left in the past,” the Tech Bro tells her.

“See, that is a big part of why I hate it, this forced inevitability,” Ava responds. “People like you are always saying, ‘It’s happening whether you like it or not,’ but you’re the ones making it happen.”

Ding, ding, ding. “Forced inevitability” is exactly it, and it’s the thing I hate about it, too.

OTTAWA - Federal and provincial watchdogs say OpenAI failed to respect Canadian privacy laws when training its artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT chatbot.

The conclusion came in a report released Wednesday following a joint investigation by federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and his counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

ChatGPT, released in November 2022, is a popular conversation-style tool that responds to online users' prompts with a wide range of information almost instantly — responses that may or may not be accurate.

They found OpenAI's collection of information to train its models was overly broad, resulting in the compilation and use of sensitive personal details.

It looks like 2026 is already shaping up to be the year of the analogue.

All over Instagram I’ve seen posts deriding, well, spending all your time on Instagram. People are setting intentions to listen to, read and watch physical media, pick up tactile hobbies such as painting, knitting, collaging and crocheting and buying alarm clocks and timers.

Screen time is out. Reconnecting with real life is in.

Over on TikTok, creators are encouraging people to pack an “analogue bag,” which is just a TikTok trendspeak for “sack of activities.” You can put whatever you want in there, but suggestions include books, journals, puzzles and sketchpads — things that do not require an internet connection or a phone.

There is a series of Instagram videos I cannot stop watching.

The American creator makes what can only be described as culinary monstrosities while deliberately mispronouncing ingredients while she’s doing it. Corn is “kern.” Worcestershire is “wash your sister.” Garlic is “garlique.”

This gal loves adding extra vowels to words almost as much as she loves adding a “jizzle” (no thank you) of something or other to her “recipes” which are, like, three tubs of ice cream, a pound of butter and a loaf of white bread on a grill.

These videos make me absolutely incandescent with rage. And yet, I watch them all and forward them to my friends. I can’t tell if these videos are satirical and this woman is actually a brilliant performance artist, but I do know what she’s doing here.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday confirmed it had been hacked, potentially disclosing important government data to malicious actors.

The small government office, with some 275 employees, provides objective, impartial analysis to support lawmakers during the budget process. It is required to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill approved by a House or Senate committee and will weigh in earlier when asked to do so by lawmakers.

Caitlin Emma, a spokeswoman for the CBO said in a written statement that the agency “has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward.”

The Washington Post first wrote the story on the CBO hack, stating that the intrusion was done by a suspected foreign actor, citing four anonymous people familiar with the situation.