Facebook has met with cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini—the latter of which was founded by the Winklevoss twins—to discuss its plans to create a cryptocurrency. A secretive unit of the social media company has been working over the past year to build a cryptocurrency that would allow users to exchange money within Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as buy things on the internet and in the real world. The twins sued Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 for allegedly stealing their idea for a social network; they ultimately settled for US$65 million. (Financial Times)
Bob Zimmer, Charlie Angus and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said the San Francisco example could inform legislation limiting the use of AI for facial recognition by police and local government agencies. The three MPs—who are chair and vice-chairs, respectively, of the House ethics committee—said the technology’s use should be prohibited if it is found to have negative outcomes, specifically on privacy and freedoms. (MobileSyrup)
Product wholesalers use New York-based Handshake to take orders from retailers. Customers include stroller brand Bugaboo, brewery Ace Hill and clothing manufacturer Dickies’ European division. Shopify did not disclose the acquisition price, but it is reportedly less than $100 million. Handshake CEO Glen Coates is now an executive at Shopify Plus, the company’s product group for larger merchants. (TechCrunch)
The Conservative leader is stepping aside after members of her own party revolted over her inability to pass a Brexit deal in the House of Commons. (The Guardian)
TD reported that its earnings from Canadian retail rose just 0.9 per cent, while the bank’s U.S. retail division increased by 29 per cent. CIBC’s U.S. commercial banking and wealth management division saw 18 per cent growth, while its personal and small business banking division fell 2.4 per cent to $570 million. Scotiabank and BMO report their results next week. (Bloomberg)
On Friday morning, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that all of the satellites are now “online.” It was its third attempt to launch after two postponements last week. The network of satellites is meant to offer internet anywhere on Earth. (New York Times)
The announcement came on Thursday at the C2 Montréal conference. The artist—legal name William Adams—did not disclose the financial terms of the arrangement. You may know him from a little group called the Black Eyed Peas, but Adams is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Advisory Committee and the Global Artificial Intelligence Committee. He will be advising Stradigi on ethics and bias. (Montreal Gazette)
The social media giant is ending its program wherein employees were paid commissions based on whether they hit or exceeded sales targets for ads that promoted a political candidate or message globally. Employees previously eligible for the commissions will get salary increases instead. Meanwhile, the company banned 2.2 billion fake accounts in the first quarter of 2019; about twice as many as the previous quarter. (Wall Street Journal, Business Insider)
The report comes from Clean Energy Canada, a non-profit think tank based out of B.C.’s Simon Fraser University, and Navius Research, a Vancouver-based firm that focuses on the quantitative analysis of energy markets. It found that the clean energy industry contributes more to Canada’s economy than agriculture and forestry or the hotel and restaurant industries, and employed almost 300,000 people across Canada in 2017. (CBC)
The device, code-named Dylan, is a joint effort with Lab126, the e-commerce giant’s computer-hardware subsidiary, and the Alexa voice software team. According to leaked documents reviewed by Bloomberg, the wearable could also be able to suggest ways of interacting better with others. Amazon declined to comment. (Bloomberg)