Discover how data brokers operate behind the scenes in Canada and the United States, quietly collecting, packaging, and selling personal data from nearly every digital interaction. This investigative piece reveals the surprising scale, methods, and consequences of a multibillion-dollar industry that trades in your private information—often without your knowledge or consent. Learn how surveillance capitalism works, why regulations fall short, and what you can do to protect yourself in an era of constant tracking.

AI is a powerful tool, but it only works well if we design, implement, and monitor it responsibly. Rather than fearing AI or blindly trusting it, we need to engage with it critically. The goal isn’t just to build AI that functions...it’s to build AI that serves us in ethical, transparent, and meaningful ways.

As I prepare to return to school, I have been reflecting on my journey with generative AI, how it has evolved, how I have adapted to it, and what its growing role means for learning, discovery, and our collective future.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way businesses operate, influencing everything from product recommendations to customer service interactions. Yet, despite its growing presence, our trust in machines isn’t universal. Instead, it’s situational, and whether we trust AI over humans often depends on what we’re trying to accomplish.

For many who are new to AI, the instinct is to simply ask it to “do their work”—to write a blog post, craft a cover letter, or complete a task outright. While this might seem efficient, it’s one of the most counterproductive ways to use this technology.

Groundbreaking research by Michal Kosinski demonstrated that digital footprints can predict personality traits with remarkable precision. For instance, analyzing as few as ten Facebook likes enables predictions about personality traits more accurately than those of a coworker…