Peter Beens 🇨🇦

Doug Ford ended hallway healthcare by creating closet healthcare.

I just noticed something interesting in my Google Takeout export of NotebookLM: all my uploaded sources, including PDFs, have been converted to HTML. It makes me wonder: Is HTML becoming the preferred underlying document format for AI, potentially replacing Markdown?

For a smart man he’s pretty stupid.

Interview with President Zelenskyy. It’s time for NATO to step up and help end this war. youtu.be/5x9dkYIRb58?si=q8t0… via @YouTube

I just used the @claudeai /Slides skill to create a slideshow from the transcript of an agentic AI demonstration I did yesterday. What it created was incredible. drive.google.com/file/d/19yK…

Hey @OpenAI, this error in #ChatGPT isn't very useful... "Something went wrong…" You guys need to get your act together. Between me not being able to convert my 40+ custom GPTs that I created for teachers into public plugins, to searching for old chats is becoming so ineffective that some people have resorted to using Codex in VS Code to have all their conversations and then summarize them into a GitHub repository (seriously!), to inconsistent user experiences across your various platforms, to bugs like the one I've obviously come across -- my experience with you has become super frustrating. I've been with you for many years. In fact, I have a business account with three members. But I've finally resorted to getting a Claude subscription to see if it's a better experience, and so far, I have to say it is. Seriously, fix things before trying to advance things.

Check out my latest article: Beyond the Syntax: Preparing High School CS Students for the Reality of AI linkedin.com/pulse/beyond-sy… via @LinkedIn

Follow the money.

I've updated my AI in Education Policies website with some new Canadian federal government initiatives focused on AI literacy and education. Of particular interest are two free resources developed through Canada's AI Literacy Initiative, led by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in partnership with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). AI for All: Essentials for Educators - A professional learning course for K-12 educators covering AI fundamentals, safety and ethics, Indigenous data sovereignty, classroom applications, and school-wide implementation. AI for All: Essentials for Students - A free, self-paced AI course for Canadian post-secondary students. Institutions can also incorporate the resources into their own programs. Although education falls under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, these federal initiatives offer resources that educators and institutions across Canada can use. I've added them to my collection of AI education policies, guidelines, legislation, and other resources from Canada, the United States, and Europe. You can explore the Canadian resources here:
peter.beens.ca/ai-in-educati… I'm trying to make this collection as comprehensive and accurate as possible, and I'd appreciate some help. Are there AI education policies or guidelines that I'm missing? These could be from provincial or territorial ministries, school boards, teachers' federations, or other educational organizations. And if you notice any mistakes, outdated information, broken links, or resources I've categorized incorrectly, please let me know. I'd like this to become a useful reference for anyone interested in how schools, governments, and educational organizations are responding to AI. Your suggestions and corrections would be appreciated. #AIinEducation #ArtificialIntelligence #AILiteracy #EducationPolicy #EdTech #CanadianEducation

I'm flabbergasted that @Google released its new #Foresight meeting transcription app with no apparent way to delete an individual meeting from the interface. No delete button. No context menu. No trash icon. @GeminiApp's solution? Quit the app, open Terminal, locate Foresight's local SQLite database, run a SQL query to find the meeting's event_id, then manually issue a DELETE command against the database. Seriously? And if you don't want to start poking around in SQLite, the alternative is to wipe Foresight's entire local data directory and delete ALL your meetings just to get rid of one. I like that Foresight runs locally. That's one of its biggest strengths. But local storage also means recordings, transcripts, indexes, and meeting data are accumulating on MY drive. How does a meeting transcription app ship without the most basic data-management function imaginable: Delete this meeting? Who is the intended user here? Someone comfortable editing SQLite databases from Terminal? This feels like a very early experimental build that shouldn't have been released without basic meeting management in place.

I don't use #Gemini much (I have a Pro account), but I gave it another try today because I had a Google-related question. I asked whether Gemini has anything like Projects in ChatGPT or Claude. It said no and suggested #NotebookLM or Gemini Gems instead. The problem? Gems is being phased out, and NotebookLM isn't even called that anymore. Seriously, Google? If Gemini can't even provide accurate, up-to-date information about Google's own products, why would I trust it with anything else? Not a great first impression after giving it another chance.

Isn’t aiding Russia a crime?

There is a traveling Epstein Files exhibit. It's amazing. This video about it is worth watching. The press needs to stop being distracted by Trump's antics and hold him accountable. This man should not be a president, let alone a CEO or even an executive member of any company. youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zTFz6m…

Gotta love AI. #ChatGPT "My earlier recommendation to disable it was incorrect."

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has told Canadians to "keep your nose out of American politics" and warned that the U.S. is monitoring Canada for possible interference in its midterm elections. What prompted this warning? Ontario ran an advertisement featuring Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs, and Canadian officials discussed imposing retaliatory tariffs on politically sensitive American states. The Ontario ad didn't mention Donald Trump or endorse a candidate. It was meant to influence American opinion on trade policy, but Hoekstra considers it political interference. If that's his definition of interference, it's worth looking at what the United States has been doing in other countries. Argentina (2025): Trump tied continued U.S. financial support to the electoral success of Javier Milei's political movement. Honduras (2025): Trump endorsed presidential candidate Nasry Asfura and warned that U.S. financial assistance could be withdrawn if he lost. Poland (2025): Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly supported presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki shortly before the election. Brazil (2025): Trump imposed tariffs and sanctions connected to the prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, putting economic pressure on Brazil over its own judicial proceedings. Venezuela (2019): The Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president and demanded that Nicolas Maduro step aside. All five examples involve direct U.S. involvement in another country's political affairs. Some involved explicit support for candidates or financial pressure tied to election results. That's considerably more direct than Ontario broadcasting Ronald Reagan's criticism of tariffs. There's another issue here: Hoekstra's responsibilities as an ambassador. Article 3 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations identifies promoting friendly relations between countries as one of an ambassador's duties. Of course, ambassadors are expected to represent their governments and defend their country's interests. Nobody disputes that. But telling Canadians to "keep your nose out" of American politics, while warning that the U.S. may retaliate, hardly seems conducive to maintaining a constructive relationship between two neighbouring countries. Canadians have taken notice. A parliamentary petition calling for Hoekstra to be declared persona non grata has reportedly attracted around 276,000 signatures. Under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention, Canada has the authority to declare an ambassador persona non grata without providing an explanation. The petition is a request from Canadians, not a decision by the Canadian government. Hoekstra has every right to raise concerns about foreign interference. But surely the standard should be consistent. If an Ontario advertisement criticizing tariffs can be considered election interference, what does that make an American president endorsing candidates in foreign elections, threatening to withhold financial assistance if they lose, or using economic pressure to influence another country's domestic affairs? And if part of an ambassador's job is to promote friendly relations, it's fair to ask whether Hoekstra's public statements are helping or harming the relationship between Canada and the United States. (...with a little help from Grok and ChatGPT)

Hoekstra needs to be expelled. He's an absolute hypocrite. If anyone wants to be an ambassador in Canada, they need to leave their Trump-style politics at the border.