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CBC
07-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
'Sometimes it doesn't work out': Calgary tech community reacts to ATTAbotics insolvency
Social Sharing Long considered a highlight of Calgary's tech scene, local robotics company ATTAbotics is now restructuring as it deals with insolvency. That restructuring includes terminating 192 of its 203 employees, keeping only 11 as it navigates the road ahead, according to documents published by insolvency trustee firm Richter Inc. Founded in 2016 by Scott Gravelle, ATTAbotics had carved a name out for itself not only in Calgary but internationally, working with the likes of Microsoft, Accenture and the United States Department of Defense. Neither Gravelle nor ATTAbotics responded to requests for comment ahead of publication. Several terminated employees declined interview requests. The company's financial troubles came as "sad news" to Terry Rock, president and CEO of tech hub Platform Calgary. "It's always surprising when a company that has something so cool doesn't make it for whatever reason," he told CBC News. ATTAbotics designed a robotics supply chain management system in which robots store and grab warehoused goods, with the goal being to boost shipping efficiency and streamline warehouse operations. The concept was a hit with funders: by the end of 2022, ATTAbotics had received over $200 million, including over $97 million in funding led by Export Development Canada along with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board in 2022, $34 million through the federal government's Strategic Innovation Fund in 2020, and $4.5 million from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund in 2018. Documents published by Richter say that ATTAbotics, "as an early-stage technology company, has never achieved profitable operations," with annual losses of $49.5 million in 2024 and $43 million the year prior. As of March 31 this year, the assets of ATTAbotics are valued at $31.6 million, while its total liabilities are approximately $73.8 million, according to the documents. On July 2, ATTAbotics filed a notice of intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, which gives the organization time to figure out its restructuring plan and come up with a proposal for creditors. The company's 11 remaining employees are considered essential to the company's restructuring, according to the Richter documents. A longtime promoter of Calgary's innovation scene, Rock said the city's tech sector growth comes with both wins and losses. "In the world of technology innovation, these people are taking big risks," he said. "They're trying to change the world with what they're doing, really exciting ideas and technologies, and sometimes it doesn't work out." According to its website, ATTAbotics at one time had over 300 employees. Former employee discusses 'challenges' at company Former ATTAbotics project manager Andrew Rockwell, who left in 2024 after nearly six years, told CBC News that there had been "internal struggles" at the company. "There were ongoing challenges at the company in kind of getting out of that startup status and commercializing the product that ATTAbotics was making," he said. "I kind of felt that the momentum forward was slowing. We were having a hard time getting off the ground." He said he was "really proud" of his work at ATTAbotics, adding that he made sure to keep in touch with former colleagues. "Seeing how things played out, I guess I'm glad I left when I did," he said. "But it still is a sad thing for me, even as an outsider now, to be seeing what's happened to the company." Rockwell hopes the employees that were let go are able to continue contributing to the city's tech scene. "I would love to see all of those excellent people land other great jobs here in Calgary … working happily here in the city, supporting a tech industry in the city," he said. He also hopes that the ATTAbotics technology "can rise from these ashes," especially to continue supporting customers that utilized it. ATTAbotics has about 150 granted and pending patent applications worldwide.
New York Times
06-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
She Wanted to Save the World From A.I. Then the Killings Started.
If she didn't get access to vegan food, she might die. That's what Ziz LaSota told a judge in February when she appeared via videoconference in Allegany County District Court in Maryland for her bail hearing. Ziz, who is known widely by her first name, spoke haltingly in a weak voice, but interrupted the judge repeatedly. 'I might starve to death if you do not intervene,' she said, asking to be released on bail. 'It's more important than whatever this hearing is.' On its face, it seemed like a reasonable request. But prosecutors saw a ploy. They argued that Ziz, 34, was not just any inmate but the leader of an extremist group tied to a series of murders across the country. (The official charges against her involved trespassing, resisting arrest and a handful of misdemeanor gun charges.) She had skipped bail once before while being held in connection with a murder in Pennsylvania. Before that, she had faked her death to 'escape investigation' in a different case, according to the Maryland district attorney. Besides, according to Capt. Daniel Lasher, assistant administrator of the Allegany County Detention Center, Ziz had been served vegan meals 'from the get-go.' The judge denied her bail request. Ziz had been a minor celebrity within a slice of the Bay Area tech scene known as the Rationalists — a highly cerebral, extremely online group of tech and philosophy nerds dedicated to improving the world through logical thinking and deeply concerned with whether artificial intelligence will overtake the world and destroy humanity. Over the years, the Rationalist movement has counted Peter Thiel and Sam Bankman-Fried among its community, and has influenced numerous figures, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Steven Pinker and Nate Silver. Perhaps more significant, for the tech workers building the A.I. tools that will undergird our world, Rationalism is something like a fraternity, and a shared language. Ziz, who is transgender, started as a typical Rationalist — a geeky optimist hoping to save the world — but turned toward an ultraradical strain of the philosophy. She wrote favorably of violence, said she was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve her goals and considered A.I.'s threat to humanity 'the most important problem in the world,' she once wrote. Now six people are dead, landing her and several friends and allies, known as the 'Zizians,' in jail, awaiting trial. Many Rationalists worry that their community will be tinged by association with a group that, while not convicted of anything, has been compared in the press to the Manson family. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
