What will Telus’ new AI tools be used for?Justin Tan/Canadian Press
Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investment news quiz. Join us every week to test your knowledge on the stories that make the headlines. Our business reporters will think of the questions, so show us what you know.
this week: The Lang family has made large donations to Canadian universities, and Telus is experimenting with new AI tools. What is it used for? Take the quiz to find out.
1This week was the week we all breathed a sigh of relief that tax season was officially over. People at the tax office may also be celebrating. How many calls from taxpayers has the Canada Revenue Agency responded to this tax season compared to last year?
a. Call volume increased by nearly 50%
b. Call volume increased by nearly 25%
c.The number of calls decreased by nearly 25%
d.The number of calls decreased by nearly 50%
d. Believe it or not, CRA is getting better. The much-maligned tax agency has seen a 46 percent drop in phone calls this tax season, thanks to an improved website and new digital tools that allow taxpayers to resolve issues online. The biggest reason for the nearly 250,000 drop in calls was a change that allowed taxpayers to reset their login credentials online. Previously, Canadians who found themselves locked out of their CRA accounts had to call the CRA for assistance.
2Which airline just signed a multibillion-dollar deal to buy 150 Canadian-made Airbus A220s?
a. air australia
b. Air Asia
c. Irish Airways
d.Air Canada
b. AirAsia announced a major contract for 150 Canadian-made jets and said the order would double if Airbus built even larger planes. This is the largest order ever for the A220 and the largest ever for a Canadian-made civilian aircraft, officials said.
3Telus is experimenting with AI tools, including:
a. Change the accent of your customer service agent
b. A female customer service representative sounds like a man
c. Instantly translate French and English
d. Monitor callers’ breathing patterns to identify potential lies
a. Does this sound creepy? Telus is introducing technology that changes the accents of its customer service agents. AI-related systems encode the speaker’s voice, modify pronunciation-related features, and then decode the voice back into speech. According to the company, this preserves the speaker’s voice but improves clarity and reduces “accent-related friction.”
4In 1991, approximately 55 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 39 were parents. Fast forward to 2021. How many people in your age group have become parents?
a. 60 percent
b. 55 percent
c. 50 percent
d. 40 percent
d. As of 2021, only about 40% of Canadians aged 25 to 39 have parents, a significant drop from levels 30 years ago. The decline in family formation is part of a larger trend, according to a new study from Statistics Canada. The report shows that Canadian millennials are entering the housing market later and putting off starting a family, largely due to affordability issues.
5Ted Turner, who passed away this week, always accomplished big things, from founding CNN to winning the America’s Cup and marrying Jane Fonda. Along the way, the adventurer-entrepreneur known as Captain Outrageous has donated US$1 billion to:
a. republican party
b. Cancer research
c. United Nations
d. Planned Parenting
c. Mr. Turner was one of the world’s leading environmentalists, one of the largest landowners in the United States, and a prominent philanthropist. In 1997, he made headlines when he announced he would donate US$1 billion to the United Nations. After his last donation in 2017, Turner called it “the best investment I’ve ever made.”
6GameStop raised eyebrows this week with its $56 billion bid for eBay. How do the sizes of the two companies compare?
a. eBay is 10x bigger
b. eBay is 4x bigger
c. eBay is twice the size
d.They are about the same size
7Greg Abel, the Canadian executive who will succeed Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, has just survived an important rite of passage. what did he do?
a. gave a speech at the company’s annual general meeting
b. Accomplished the first major acquisition
c. Announcement of change in share structure
d. Selling the company’s original business
a. Abell, a University of Alberta graduate, spoke at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, four months after taking over as CEO of the world’s most famous investor. When Mr. Buffett was running the show, he used to fill the 18,000-seat arena. Mr. Abel was a small participant, but he echoed some of the same views as his prominent predecessor and reassured investors that he had no intention of breaking up Berkshire.
8Which organization is in turmoil after a Globe and Mail article revealed that it secretly purchased a $4 million home for the use of its top executives?
a. right-wing lobby group
b.Left-wing think tank
c.Carpenters Union
d.Community college
The Carpenters Regional Council, one of Canada’s largest construction unions, has been placed under the supervision of its U.S. parent organization and is facing an internal investigation after the Globe and Mail reported that it secretly purchased a multimillion-dollar home in the Toronto area for the use of its top executives. The association’s executive committee was not informed about the home and its intended purpose and did not vote on the purchase, according to a person familiar with the association’s decision.
9Stu and Kim Lang, members of the family that owns the $14 billion packaging and label manufacturer CCL Industries, just made the largest gift ever to a Canadian business school. Which university was the lucky recipient of a $51 million gift?
a. queen’s university
b.University of Toronto
c.Western University
d.University of Guelph
The D. Langs donated the funds to the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. The school is named after Mr. Lang’s father, who founded Toronto-based CCL in 1951.
10Which automaker is reportedly shelving its $15 billion plan to build an electric vehicle complex in Ontario?
a. general motors
b.Toyota
c.Honda
d.Hyundai
c. According to a report from Japan’s Nikkei Shimbun, Honda has indefinitely canceled plans to build an EV complex in Ontario. Honda announced the project in 2024, but suspended it for two years in 2025 due to slowing EV demand and sudden opposition to the technology in the United States. The Nikkei Shimbun reported this week that Honda has decided to suspend its Ontario plant indefinitely and may abolish it completely.
11Which major U.S. company has violated Canadian privacy laws in developing software tools?
a. human
b.OpenAI
c.Microsoft
d.Alphabet
b. A three-year investigation by Canada’s privacy regulator found that OpenAI violated the law when handling personal information in the initial release of ChatGPT. The San Francisco-based company collected vast amounts of personal information without proper safeguards, leaving many users unaware that their data was being collected and used to train AI models. OpenAI says it has made changes to address major concerns. I agree.
12A new pipeline for Canadian crude oil is close to securing commitments from oil companies needed to move it forward. Where will the pipeline run?
a. From Alberta to Wyoming
b. From Alberta to Ontario
c. From Alberta to British Columbia
d. From Alberta to Washington State
a. The proposed Alberta to Wyoming pipeline has nearly secured the minimum commitments from oil companies needed to move forward with the project, Reuters reports. The pipeline, proposed by Canadian pipeline company Southbow and its U.S. partner Bridger Pipelines, could increase Canada’s crude oil exports to the U.S. by more than 12 percent.
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