Dunn, Pierre, Barnett & Company Canada Ltd

You've seen the prompts:

“Get verified to build trust.”
“A verification badge gives people confidence to interact with you.”

It sounds noble — like it's all about safety, credibility, and community. But beneath the surface, the push for verification is about much more than trust. It's part of a growing strategy by social media platforms to extract more revenue, collect deeper personal data, and control visibility in ways the average user rarely questions.

In this article, we’ll pull back the curtain on the real commercial reasons behind verification systems — the incentives platforms won’t talk about in their press releases. From monetization and algorithmic manipulation to data harvesting and tiered user experiences, here’s what’s really going on behind that little blue checkmark.

The Real Commercial Reasons Behind Verification Badges

1. Monetization via Subscriptions

Most platforms (like X/Twitter, Meta, etc.) now tie verification to paid subscriptions. This turns what was once a free, merit-based system into a recurring revenue stream.

Example: X Blue (Twitter Blue) charges monthly for verification, increasing ARPU (average revenue per user).

2. Data Collection & Identity Matching

Verification often requires official ID, phone numbers, or biometric data. This lets platforms:

• Build more accurate user profiles

• Cross-match accounts across platforms

• Improve targeted advertising

More verified identities = more reliable data = more valuable to advertisers.

3. Algorithmic Prioritization & Control

Verified users are often prioritized in feeds, replies, and recommendations. This:

• Encourages more engagement from verified users (who are also often paying)

• De-prioritizes non-verified users (making them more likely to pay for reach)

It’s a subtle form of pay-to-play visibility.

4. Fraud Liability Shielding

By pushing verification, platforms:

• Reduce bot activity

• Shift responsibility for harmful or spammy behavior away from the platform ("We verified them, they’re real")

This protects them legally and helps justify tighter content moderation policies.

5. Segmentation of Users for Tiered Experiences

Verification helps platforms create "classes" of users:

• Verified = premium, prioritized, profitable

• Non-verified = free-tier, limited reach, fewer features

This allows more aggressive monetization strategies in the future (ads, tipping, paywalled content, etc.).

✨ How Social Rewards Technology & The EventBot Offer a Better Path

While big platforms are monetizing identity verification and restricting access to reach, there's a new way forward — one that respects privacy, decentralizes monetization, and puts power back in the hands of creators, professionals, and digital entrepreneurs.

✅ No Biometric Surveillance. No ID Required.

Unlike social media networks that demand sensitive personal data to unlock monetization features, the EventBot and Social Rewards technology never require:

• Government-issued IDs

• Facial scans or biometric data

• Credit checks or invasive identity verification

You retain control over your digital identity — while still gaining access to real monetization tools.

✅ Monetization Without Gatekeeping

With the EventBot, you don't need to "qualify" for monetization through platform loyalty or follower counts. Instead:

• Every new guest, subscriber, or referral can generate earnings

• No need to create daily content or engage in non-stop self-promotion

• AI-powered outreach and social rewards automation do the heavy lifting for you

It’s a true “set-it-and-earn” model — built for busy professionals and creators who want predictable income, not performance pressure.

✅ Designed for the Digital Economy

Where traditional platforms throttle visibility unless you pay, the EventBot and the Pamper Me Network ecosystem are designed to amplify your reach:

• Your content drives growth through networked sharing and referrals

• You earn from free registrations, not just paid followers or tipping

• Your audience becomes your marketing engine

This isn’t a patch to an old system — it’s a reimagining of what online success should look like.

✨ Final Thought: You Deserve Better Than a Blue Check

The blue check has become a symbol not of trust, but of compliance with corporate control. Social Rewards and EventBot represent a new model — hands-free, ethical, and creator-first. You don’t need to trade privacy for opportunity, or pay to be seen.

If you're ready to build real income from your digital presence — without selling your identity to the highest bidder — it's time to explore smarter systems designed with your freedom in mind.

In Short:

Verification isn’t just about trust — it’s about control, monetization, and deeper data extraction. You're not just proving you're real — you’re becoming part of a new commercial tier designed to generate revenue.

Sources & Further Reading

To better understand the commercial motivations behind social media verification systems, check out these trusted sources:

1. Social Media Companies Look to Customers to Diversify Revenue

Investopedia
This article explains how platforms are shifting from ad-based models to paid services — including subscriptions for verification — as a new way to monetize their user base.

2. Meta Verified Shows a Company Running Out of Ideas

Wired
A sharp critique of Meta’s paid verification offering, this piece explores how the company is repackaging visibility as a premium feature — while offering little value to creators or users.

3. Social Media Verification Drives Polarization and Echo Chambers

Neuroscience News
This article dives into the unintended consequences of algorithmic amplification tied to verification, suggesting it may deepen divisions and amplify echo chambers.

4. How Paid Verification Services on Social Media Affect Marketing

Vinci Digital
A marketing-focused breakdown of how paid verification is changing how brands and influencers engage, build trust, and gain reach online.

5. With Paid Verification on the Rise, Content Creators and Marketers Feel Mixed

Digiday
Captures the mixed reactions among creators and advertisers to the growing pay-to-play model. Offers real-world insight into how this shift is impacting digital strategy.

In today’s fast-paced development environment, time is everything—and clarity is critical. Whether you’re debugging complex applications or refactoring thousands of lines of legacy code, having an AI assistant that can understand your entire source file—not just fragments—can make the difference between hours of frustration and minutes to resolution.

That’s where ChatGPT Plus shines.

By upgrading, developers unlock the ability to upload full source files, use advanced tools like the Code Interpreter (Advanced Data Analysis), and access the power of GPT‑4. This combination allows ChatGPT to deliver code suggestions that are context-aware, structurally sound, and far more accurate than anything possible in the free tier.

In this article, we’ll explore why full-file visibility transforms how developers interact with AI, and how upgrading to ChatGPT Plus dramatically boosts productivity, reduces errors, and enhances your overall development workflow.

Let’s dive in.

Providing the Entire File: Why It Matters

When a user pastes an entire source file into ChatGPT, the model gains visibility into every class, method, variable, and bracket in one unified view. This comprehensive context eliminates the need to infer missing pieces or piece together isolated snippets, resulting in a more accurate and efficient code review process.

Complete Context

With the full file available, ChatGPT can precisely identify where to insert, remove, or refactor code. There is no risk of inadvertently breaking functionality due to an unseen definition or variable reuse elsewhere in the codebase.

Consistent Structure

Access to the entire file ensures that the model understands how methods interrelate, which classes are imported, and where key variables are initialized. This prevents guesswork about project architecture and promotes coherent suggestions.

Fewer Misunderstandings

Partial snippets often conceal subtle dependencies—shared variables, duplicate method names, or nested bracket structures—that can mislead automated fixes. By reviewing the full source, ChatGPT avoids recommendations that conflict with unseen code, reducing iteration cycles.

In essence, granting ChatGPT access to the complete file aligns its edits with the application’s actual structure, minimizing back‑and‑forth communication and eliminating guesswork. It mirrors the workflow benefits developers experience when exploring a full code repository rather than editing individual functions in isolation.

The Value of Upgrading

The ability to upload full files and leverage advanced code analysis hinges on the chosen ChatGPT subscription. Upgrading to a tier that supports file uploads and the Code Interpreter (Advanced Data Analysis) unlocks end‑to‑end visibility and manipulation of the user’s codebase.

• Full Structure Parsing
  The model can analyze classes, methods, and imports holistically, preventing conflicts with unseen code.

• Error Prevention
  Duplication or redeclaration issues are caught early by spotting existing functions and variables across the file.

• First‑Pass Accuracy
  Transformations such as renames, refactors, and deletions are validated against the entire file, ensuring working code on the first delivery.

In practice, upgrading streamlines collaboration by providing the complete context needed for precise, reliable code edits. For developers who regularly share larger modules or entire codebases, this capability significantly reduces troubleshooting and accelerates development.

WHAT DOES IT COST TO UPGRADE?

Choosing the Right ChatGPT Plan: A Breakdown of Subscription Tiers

Whether you’re a casual user or part of a large organization, OpenAI offers a ChatGPT plan to fit your needs. Below, we outline the three main tiers—Free, Plus, and Enterprise—to help you decide which subscription is right for you.

1. Free Tier

Price: $0/month
Best For: New users, light experimentation, basic AI assistance

• GPT‑3.5 Access
  Engage with the powerful GPT‑3.5 model for everyday questions and simple tasks.

• Basic Browsing & Plugins
  Explore the web and integrate a handful of official plugins to enhance your experience.

• Limited File Uploads & Code Interpreter
  Experiment with file uploads and the Code Interpreter (now called Advanced Data Analysis) within monthly usage caps.

2. ChatGPT Plus

Price: $20/month (or €23/month in EMEA)
Best For: Power users, developers, and small teams

Everything in the Free Tier, plus:

• GPT‑4 Access
  Unlock the state‑of‑the‑art GPT‑4 model for more nuanced, creative, and reliable outputs.

• Enhanced File‑Upload & Processing Limits
  Work with larger files and run more complex code‑analysis sessions in the Code Interpreter.

• Priority Access & Performance
  Experience faster response times, even during peak demand, and get early access to new features.

3. Enterprise (and Team)

Price: Custom pricing—contact OpenAI Sales
Best For: Large organizations with specialized requirements

• Volume Discounts
  Scale your usage affordably with tiered volume pricing.

• Single Sign‑On (SSO) & Advanced Security
  Integrate with corporate identity providers and enforce enterprise‑grade security controls.

• Data Controls & Compliance
  Retain ownership of your data, with options for private deployment and custom data‑retention policies.

• Dedicated Support
  Access priority technical assistance and onboarding services for seamless integration.

How to Upgrade or Compare Plans

To compare features side‑by‑side or change your ChatGPT plan, open the ChatGPT app and navigate to Settings → Plan & Billing. For a full overview of all options and the most up‑to‑date pricing, visit the OpenAI Pricing page:
https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing

The Government of Canada is opening the doors to cutting-edge AI innovation with the upcoming AI Compute Access Fund, launching in Spring 2025. With up to $300 million in funding available, the program is a cornerstone of Canada’s broader Sovereign AI Compute Strategy—designed to strengthen domestic AI infrastructure and empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to build, scale, and commercialize breakthrough technologies.

For Canadian companies eager to harness the power of high-performance computing, this fund offers substantial financial support, the potential for national economic impact, and a clear opportunity to level the playing field in the global AI race.

How Much Support Can You Get?

If approved, your company could receive:

• ✅ Up to two-thirds of your project’s cost (max $3.35 million) covered for Canadian-based cloud AI compute services
• ✅ Up to half of your project’s cost (max $2.5 million) for non-Canadian compute services

This funding offsets one of the biggest hurdles in AI development—compute cost—allowing Canadian innovators to focus on building smarter, faster, and more impactful solutions.

Who Is Eligible?

To qualify, your company must:

• Be incorporated in Canada
• Employ fewer than 500 full-time staff
• Be revenue-generating or have received Series A funding
• Have an R&D team based in Canada
• Be developing AI products or services with a clear path to market
• Hold an existing AI compute service agreement

Projects can range from $100,000 to $5 million, with funding covering up to three years of development.

What Types of Projects Are a Good Fit?

Successful applicants will demonstrate how their AI project:

1. Utilizes AI compute resources to advance research and product development
2. Boosts innovation and productivity in its sector (e.g., new IP, tech breakthroughs)
3. Drives broader economic benefits (e.g., job creation, revenue growth)
4. Positively impacts Canadian communities, especially Indigenous and underserved regions

Target industries include life sciences, energy, and advanced manufacturing, though any high-impact AI project is welcome to apply.

How the Application Process Works

The process includes four key steps:

Step 1: Sign Up
Create an account and verify your identity on the AI Compute Access Fund portal.

Step 2: Submit Interest
Share basic project details and get notified when the full application window opens.

Step 3: Full Application (Invite-Only)
If selected, you’ll submit a detailed application including a commercialization plan, scaling strategy, and benefit analysis.

Step 4: Implementation & Monitoring
Once approved, you’ll sign a Contribution Agreement, claim eligible costs, and participate in ongoing progress check-ins.

Why This Matters

High compute costs and limited infrastructure have long hindered Canadian companies from fully participating in the global AI boom. The AI Compute Access Fund changes that by giving SMEs and innovators a powerful financial and strategic boost—and helping ensure that Canada’s AI future is sovereign, scalable, and sustainable.

With applications opening soon, this is the moment for startups, research labs, and AI-driven businesses to prepare their proposals and secure a head start in the AI economy of tomorrow.

Ready to Apply?

⏳ Visit the official program page
⏳ Questions? Contact ISED directly through the portal.
⏳ Don’t wait—the application window opens Spring 2025.

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) continues to solidify Canada’s global leadership in artificial intelligence with its flagship AI Catalyst Grants—an ambitious program designed to ignite groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research across science, society, and AI technology.

Backed by the governments of Canada, Alberta, and Québec, and supported by a diverse network of international foundations, private donors, and research partners, CIFAR is helping define the future of AI through curiosity-driven, long-term innovation.

What Are CIFAR AI Catalyst Grants?

CIFAR AI Catalyst Grants are strategic funding opportunities that support novel collaborations between researchers in machine learning and other scientific or societal domains. These grants don’t just support what’s already working—they catalyze entirely new areas of exploration, pushing the boundaries of AI and how it intersects with disciplines like medicine, climate science, ethics, and more.

In a world where AI applications are rapidly expanding, Catalyst Grants ensure that foundational, exploratory work remains a cornerstone of Canada’s national AI strategy.

A Look at the 2025 Focus Areas

For 2025, the Catalyst Grants are zeroing in on urgent challenges where AI innovation is crucial:

• Combating Misinformation
  Investigating how AI can both detect and mitigate the spread of misleading or harmful content online.
• Trustworthy & Interpretable Large Language Models (LLMs)
  Addressing the black-box nature of LLMs and exploring how to build systems that are explainable, fair, and aligned with human values.
• Ensuring Real-World Safety in AI Systems
  Designing frameworks to evaluate and enhance the robustness of AI applications in critical sectors like transportation, finance, and healthcare.

These themes reflect growing public concern over AI’s trustworthiness and its alignment with human values—and CIFAR is ensuring that Canadian researchers are leading that global conversation.

A Legacy of Innovation: Previous Award Highlights

2024 Highlights:

• Generating Images with Multimodal Instruction
  Pushing the limits of AI creativity by blending text, image, and audio inputs.
• Fundamentals of Transformers
  Probing how these powerful models generalize and optimize across tasks.
• NLP for Diverse Cultures
  Making natural language tools more inclusive and representative of different global communities.

2022–2023 Highlights:

• Human-Machine Co-Adaptation in Music Improvisation
  Using AI to collaborate in real-time music-making with human performers.
• Culturally-Inclusive AI in Indigenous Youth Programs
  Integrating AI education into Indigenous STEM initiatives in Canada.
• Privacy-Preserving Synthetic Health Data
  Enabling research on sensitive topics like opioid use and medical imaging without compromising privacy.

A Pan-Canadian & Global Commitment

CIFAR’s AI Catalyst program is a pillar of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which also includes world-class AI research hubs in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, and Vancouver. But its vision extends beyond national borders, attracting collaboration from international scholars and institutions eager to join Canada’s inclusive, ethical approach to AI development.

How to Get Involved

While the current round of Catalyst Grants has been awarded, CIFAR welcomes inquiries for future rounds. Researchers, institutions, and innovators interested in applying or learning more about the initiative can reach out via:

[email protected]
Visit the Program Page

Why It Matters

In a tech landscape increasingly driven by short-term product cycles and hype, CIFAR AI Catalyst Grants remain a rare and vital commitment to deep, interdisciplinary inquiry. These grants not only fund the AI of tomorrow—they shape the ethical, social, and scientific foundations that AI will stand on for decades to come.

By supporting projects that span from explainable machine learning to inclusive education, CIFAR ensures that Canada remains not only a leader in AI capability, but also in AI responsibility.