Welcome back to Lately, The Globe’s weekly tech newsletter. If you have feedback or just want to say hello to a real-life human, send me an e-mail.
In this week’s issue:
🤑 OpenAI raises US$6.6-billion
🎶 Oasis ditches dynamic pricing for North American tour
🤳 TikTok is the new comedy bar
🎙️ The great decline of everything online
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
OpenAI raises $6.6-billion as Sam Altman eyes for profit status
CEO Sam Altman wants to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company.JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, raised US$6.6-billion from investors this week, bringing its valuation to US$157-billion and becoming one of the world’s most valuable private companies in the world. This big milestone comes against the backdrop of a tumultuous time for OpenAI. Several high-profile executives have departed the company, including chief technology officer Mira Murati last week. Earlier this summer, current and former employees said the company prioritizes speeding up new product launches over safety and warned in an open letter that artificial intelligence poses grave risks to humanity.
At the same time, CEO Sam Altman is trying to transition the company from a “capped profit” organization, which puts a limit on the returns for investors, into a traditional for-profit. The restructuring would also put an end to the current non-profit board that oversees the company. The move is complex, but the new funding relies on it: investors can claw back their capital or renegotiate the valuation if the changes are not made within two years.
PLATFORMS
The feeling everything online is getting worse now? There’s a word for that
Remember when Google Search was actually really good at finding stuff on the internet, instead of feeding you SEO farm websites and irrelevant shopping ads? Or how when you searched Amazon for “cat scratching posts”, the first results weren’t all sponsored with fake-looking reviews? The British-Canadian journalist Cory Doctorow has coined a term for the slow degradation of digital platforms: enshittification. On this week’s episode of Lately, he speaks with host Vass Bednar about why “enshittification” is a symptom of corporate under-regulation and monopoly practices, and how we can make the internet good again.
ALGOTHRIMS
Don’t look back in anger, Oasis fans. The band won’t use dynamic pricing for tickets
Oasis ditches dynamic pricing for North American tour.OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images
Oasis has announced the reunion tour is coming to North America, kicking off in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. The band also announced it will be ditching Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, which allows for ticket prices to fluctuate based on demand. In reality, this means ticket prices for high-demand shows, such as Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen, surge beyond face value. In the U.K., where dynamic pricing was in effect, Oasis tickets that were listed for £148.50 spiked to £355.20 by the time it came to pay. So while Toronto fans won’t need to deal with dynamic pricing schemes, they will need to contend with familial dynamics and whether the Gallagher brothers break up again before the North American leg even starts.
What else we’re reading this week:
‘Pig butchering’ scam operations are proliferating around the world, raking in billions (WIRED)
Destined for clicks: YouTube is driving an astrology boom in Pakistan (Rest of World)
The next big thing is still … smart glasses (The Atlantic)
Soundbite
When companies had competitors, they treated you better. And when they didn’t, they lost to those competitors. Now you have companies like Apple. Tim Cook’s bringing home a new company for his shareholders more often than you bring home a bag of groceries for your family.
— Cory Doctorow, author of Chokepoint Capitalism, and inventor of the term “enshittification,” as heard on this week’s episode of Lately.
HOMEWARES
Adult Money
With the AeroGarden, I could have fresh basil in the depths of winter.AeroGarden
AeroGarden Sprout kit, $140
In the summer, I feast on my Toronto backyard garden’s harvest: giant zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, bushy kale, basil and plump snap peas that taste amazing straight off the vine. Now that the garden’s looking bare, I’m thinking about indoor gardening and the plethora of hydroponic growing kits available. I’m enticed by the AeroGarden system, and not only because my mom has been using it for three years and raves about it. The Sprout system is small enough to fit on a kitchen counter, can grow up to three types of plants and comes with pods so you can easily germinate your own seeds. There’s also research that indoor plants “can reduce physiological and psychological stress,” which means I could have fresh cilantro all winter and another remedy to fight off the winter blues.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Culture radar
Laura Ramoso in a TikTok impersonating her German mother.Facebook
From TikTok to global stage, this Canadian comedian takes her act on the road
To her millions of followers on TikTok, Canadian sketch comedian Laura Ramoso is likely more recognizable when she’s dressed as a caricature of her German mother, always in a black turtleneck with her glasses perched atop her head. In one of her viral videos, Ramoso impersonates her mother while wedding dress shopping. She deadpans: “Laura, you want to wear white? Ach. Why not grey? Why not wear brown? How about you do something original for once?”
Ramoso, who is currently touring across Canada, is one of the many comedians who turned to social media during the pandemic when comedy clubs were shuttered – and are now finding even bigger success back on stage. Saturday Night Live’s new cast member Jane Wickline built her fanbase on TikTok, as did the trio Please Don’t Destroy, who were hired as writers in 2021.
More tech and telecom news:
AT&T sells stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG for $7.6-billion
Apple accused by U.S. labour board of imposing illegal workplace rules