AI – Ramsay Inc.

Tags: AI

PRAISE THE LORD…

and pass the ammunition. That sums up Tuesday’s U.S. midterm results.

True, Mr. Trump still has two months to wreak havoc before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3. But the the herd has moved.

The best line of the victory speeches belonged to James Talarico, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas in 38 years: “I want to be a senator for those who can’t buy one.”

And the fastest knives came out of J.D. Vance, who couldn’t even wait till noon Wednesday to blame the Iran war (i.e., Trump) for the GOP’s losses. So much for honour among thieves.

Read on…

November 6, 2026 November 6, 2026

WHEN SMALL GETS BIG.

I’ve always been struck by how our most inflammatory issues directly affect a tiny number of people.

Let’s take gender transition. Five years ago, StatsCan became the first government agency anywhere on earth to count the number of transgender people. It found 59,460 Canadians aged 15 and up, or 0.19% of our population, were trans. Yet op-ed pages and school board meetings can’t get enough of gender transition. Nor can Pete Hegseth, who’s drumming all of America’s transgender service people out of the military, while his boss simply utters the word “trans” and Trump’s MAGA base bays like wolves at his moon.

Read on…

October 30, 2026 October 30, 2026

WHY HAVE ONE REGULATOR WHEN YOU CAN HAVE 13?

Most Canadians are stunned to learn that the biggest tariffs Canadians pay aren’t to the U.S., but to each other.

The IMF estimates that interprovincial trade barriers are equal to a national tariff of 9.5%. This is far higher than the Bank of Canada’s assumed U.S. tariff on Canadian goods of 5.8%.

In fact, across Canada, internal trade barriers artificially inflate the cost of everyday goods and services by 7.8% to 14.5%. If we were to dismantle these domestic bottlenecks Canada’s GDP would grow by $161 billion a year, putting $2,300 to $4,000 a year back into the pocket of every Canadian.

Read on…

October 16, 2026 October 16, 2026

I DIDN’T PUT DOWN MY PEN AND STEP OUT ONTO THE WINDOW LEDGE. NOR SHOULD YOU.

Three years ago, AI was a tekkies’ fever dream, barely real but high on the magic of what’s coming.

Two years ago, AI could put together a sentence, but you had to double-check every word for hallucinations.

Eighteen months ago, AI could write sentences, even paragraphs. They weren’t clunky, either.

Twelve months ago, AI could write a speech, though it still sounded disembodied.

Read on…

July 10, 2026 July 10, 2026

I AM NOT A ROBOT.

Joanna Stern writes about tech for The Wall Street Journal. She decided to spend a year using AI to do almost everything, and the result is a book, *I Am Not a Robot,*

We may vaguely recall a decade or more ago reading about a journalist who decided to live like a hermit for a week and order everything they needed online – food, toilet paper, clothes, banking, books, the works.

Back then, ordering stuff online was for early adopters. Hence, the news value of a story about someone who actually lived online. Now, of course, nearly all of us do our banking online, check in for our flight, order dinner in and, of course, drive from A to B.

Read on…

June 5, 2026 June 5, 2026

LEAVING HOME.

The last time a province tried to leave the country was on October 30, 1995, when a referendum was held in Quebec.

The “Yes” or “Leave” side won 2,308,360 votes, or 49.42% of the vote, and the “No” or “Stay” side won 2,362,648 votes, or 50.58% of the vote. A record 93.52% of eligible voters cast their ballot.

Whew.

I remember in the months leading up to the vote that our view in English Canada shifted from “Quebec will never leave” and “They’re just a small group of rabble-rousers”, to “Once Quebeckers realize what’s at stake, they’ll come around”, to “OMG, they’re going to destroy the country!”

Read on…

May 22, 2026 May 22, 2026

HOUSE CONCERTS.

Years ago, we went to Austin, Texas, home to SXSW and a concert format we’d never experienced.

A friend who knew a local musician would ask them over to play in their living room, then invite the neighbours, who each put $20 into the jar, and everyone enjoyed an evening of music, along with some basic food and drink provided by the host. That was it.

The musicians sold a few CDs, the audience got an intimate performance, and occasionally, a career got a nudge. In a world where great artists struggle to be seen online, this kind of high-touch, in-person gathering can make all the difference.

REMEMBER ‘DEATH PANELS’?

Sarah Palin used them in 2009 to fight Obamacare reforms by scaring U.S. voters into thinking that groups of doctors would decide which patients would live and which would die. Back then, one in three healthcare dollars went to treat Americans 65 and older. Today it’s 37%. Still no death panels, nor are there in Canada.

But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is pushing Bill 18, The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act that will act much like Death Panels, except they will constrain Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) instead of encouraging it.

This week, the Globe and Mail’s Robyn Urback wrote why this is a terrible idea made worse by Smith invoking the “notwithstanding clause” which lets any province veto any Charter right or Supreme Court decision, such as the one in 2015 when the Court voted 9-0 to allow MAiD because not to allow it constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Read on…

March 27, 2026 March 27, 2026

PASSPORT, PLEASE.

Trump Tower, Trump Hotel, Trump (and Kennedy) Center, Trump Institute, Trump Park, Trump Highway, Trump Boulevard and, as of last week, Trump Station (replacing Penn Station in New York), and Trump International Airport (replacing Dulles International in Virginia).

These last two are just possibilities for now. They’re the quo in the quid pro quo of Trump unfreezing billions of dollars in funding for a major New York infrastructure project. If Senate Democrats say yes to Trump’s offer, the taps will open. They’ve said no so far, though this is only the opening round of negotiations.

Read on…

February 14, 2026 April 17, 2026

HOW AI CAN DO YOUR BRAIN’S HEAVY LIFTING.

Back in June, I wrote a blog titled “How to use AI.”

Like many of us who earn our keep by our wits, I’d used ChatGTP and Perplexity as search engines on steroids. “What is Elon Musk’s e-mail ? “How will the new CFL rules make Canadian football more like American?” “Will we have rainbows day after day?”

Then I decided to use AI to plan. It did this shockingly well and lightning fast for a very specific trip to Japan.

I quickly learned AI’s uses are advancing so fast that what was earth-shaking last year is ho-hum today. For example, back in June, only a tiny fraction of Ontario physicians used AI to write up your visit, schedule referrals and prescribe medications. By next June, most of Ontario’s 18,000 family physicians will be using AI for that. So your doctor will actuallysee you and hear you when you come in for your physical. Game changer!

Read on…

November 28, 2025 January 2, 2026

AT 25, YOU WERE BARELY YOU.

Ask anyone to write a letter to their 25-year-old self and they won’t be kind.

Indeed, given the responses to our writing contest last month – we asked you to write a 100-word letter to your 25-year-old self — being 25 is one of the most arrogant, unknowing, unseeing and cringeworthy times of our lives. Did I really spend all that money on a watch? Hook up with a known psychopath? Treat my best friend like dirt? And don’t even talk to me about drinking and drugging. We’re lucky to be alive.

I remember back in the 80s my film festival friend, Helga Stephenson, asked if I would help her ‘chaperone’ a party for TIFF’s young financial supporters. They were all under 30. They were smart, attractive, fit and cocksure. They beamed with certainty. Helga said as we left: “Life hasn’t happened to them yet.”

True that.

Clearly, the older you drift from 25, the younger 25 looks. By the time you’re twice that age, life is often a muddle, or a slow-motion leap off the cliff. Get to threescore years and ten and it can be a tragedy in the making. Get to 80, and more tires are coming off the car than staying on.

Read on…

November 21, 2025 January 2, 2026

WEAPONS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION.

Last weekend our family went for its annual Thanksgiving Walk, a two-hour hike through Awenda Provincial Park above Georgian Bay. Behind me were my stepson and his 11-year-old daughter. Their conversation twisted and turned through as many subjects as they did navigating the fallen trees and winding forest paths. I was listening idly to their back-and-forth when I heard: “But when can I have a phone?”

I won’t say the skies clouded, but the mood changed at this, the most insistent question of our age. Because asking mom and dad when you can have your first phone has turned into asking them when you can have your first shot of heroin.

Clearly, this was not the first time she’d asked, and I was impressed by her father’s patience as he calmly listed all the reasons an 11-year-old shouldn’t have a mobile phone. “But Mary has one, and she’s 12!”

Tags: AI

PRAISE THE LORD…

WHEN SMALL GETS BIG.

WHY HAVE ONE REGULATOR WHEN YOU CAN HAVE 13?

I DIDN’T PUT DOWN MY PEN AND STEP OUT ONTO THE WINDOW LEDGE. NOR SHOULD YOU.

I AM NOT A ROBOT.

LEAVING HOME.

HOUSE CONCERTS.

REMEMBER ‘DEATH PANELS’?

PASSPORT, PLEASE.

HOW AI CAN DO YOUR BRAIN’S HEAVY LIFTING.

AT 25, YOU WERE BARELY YOU.

WEAPONS OF SELF-DESTRUCTION.

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