Computing

**​The Test Tribe 11th Toronto Meetup** ​ Agentic, generative, and evocative AI is no longer a passing trend-it’s reshaping how software is built, delivered, and trusted. As AI systems become more autonomous, opaque, and influential, the risks extend far beyond bugs and failures. They reach into ethics, bias, accountability, and societal trust. ​In this powerful and provocative keynote, Robert Sabourin challenges testers to rethink their role in an AI-driven world. Testing is no longer just a technical activity-it is an act of social responsibility. As guardians of risk, uncertainty, and quality, testers are uniquely positioned to protect not just products, but people and institutions. ​This is not a talk about fear-it’s a wake-up call, and an invitation to rise. ## ​Event Details ​📅 Date: 4th February 2026 (Wednesday) 🕕 Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST 🏢 Location: 125 E Liberty St, Toronto 🗺️ Google Maps:[ https://maps.app.goo.gl/mwJf4zRSkXQa2v9w5](https://maps.app.goo.gl/mwJf4zRSkXQa2v9w5) ## ​Session: Test Transcendence and the AI Apocalypse ​Speaker: Robert Sabourin ## ​About the Session ​AI is redefining what we mean by *products*, *services*, and even *decision-making itself*. Its promise of speed and intelligence is intoxicating-but beneath it lies a rapidly growing landscape of risk. ​In this keynote, Robert Sabourin explores how software testing becomes a critical line of defense in an era where autonomy, bias, and opacity threaten trust itself. Drawing from decades of real-world experience, Rob brings these ideas to life through compelling stories, case studies, and pragmatic strategies for testing agentic and generative AI systems. ​This is a high-energy, reality-grounded session that goes beyond tools and techniques. It’s about purpose. ​As AI systems grow more powerful, testers must transcend traditional roles. The future demands professionals who can model risk, navigate uncertainty, and communicate value to leaders, regulators, and society at large. ​The apocalypse is not a prophecy-it’s a call to action. ## ​Key Takeaways * ​Understand how AI is redefining risk, quality, and assurance in modern socio-technical systems * ​Recognize the ethical and social responsibility of testing in an AI-driven world * ​Learn concrete strategies for testing agentic and generative AI responsibly * ​Discover how testers can evolve from defect finders to trusted advisors and change agents * ​Leave inspired by decades of practical wisdom-and the belief that testing can truly make a positive impact ## ​About the Speaker ​Robert Sabourin has over four decades of experience in software engineering and testing. A globally respected educator, consultant, and keynote speaker, Rob is known for his energetic, story-driven, and deeply thought-provoking presentations. ​He bridges technical excellence with human insight, helping teams around the world elevate quality, accountability, and trust in the software systems that increasingly shape our lives. His work consistently challenges professionals to think bigger-not just about systems, but about their responsibility to society. ## ​Why You Should Attend * ​Gain a rare, big-picture perspective on AI, risk, and trust * ​Learn how testing intersects with ethics, governance, and societal impact * ​Be inspired to elevate your role in an AI-first world * ​Hear from one of the most respected voices in global testing * ​Connect with Toronto’s QA and tech community at the 11th Toronto Meetup ## ​About The Test Tribe ​The Test Tribe is the world’s largest software testing community, empowering testers globally since 2018. With 700+ events and 150K+ members across 130+ countries, we bring testers together to learn, grow, and connect through meetups, conferences, cohorts, masterclasses, and more. ​By RSVPing, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and consent to be contacted by The Test Tribe and our event partners.

Lose 10lbs in 5 WEEKS and Win Prizes ! Topics will include Metabolism, Carbohydrate addiction, digestive health, label reading, dining out, heart health and many more. $ 50 to Join the Challenge includes: - Weekly Weigh In, Accountability and Motivation - 40 Min nutrition class - Voucher for 'Healthy Meal' - Personalized Meal Plan - Lose 1 - 3lbs a week. To register for your spot: www.ShapingUpCanada.com

(Full title – Breaking the 'Invisible Chains of Slavery': Recognition's Motivational Problem and Frederick Douglass's Abolitionist Politics of Shame) This talk reads Frederick Douglass as a theorist of recognition and examines one of the counterintuitive ways that he navigates what I call the “motivational problem.” Struggles for recognition encounter the motivational problem when there is no clear desire or need on the part of powerful individuals or dominant groups to confer affirmative recognition to those struggling for recognition. While most studies of the political and moral salience of recognition focus exclusively on the misrecognition of the oppressed, Douglass confronts the motivational problem by orienting the attention of his readers and audiences to a form of misrecognition experienced by white slaveholders: a recognition of a humanity that is falsely assumed to remain intact and undistorted as a result of slaveholding. Douglass rhetorically leverages this discrepancy for an abolitionist politics of shame. By demonstrating how slaveholders alienate their humanity, Douglass seeks to not only shame slaveholders but erode their external sources of recognition and persuade his white northern audiences to dis-identify with the slaveholders and thereby implicitly recognize their own misrecognition of the master’s humanity. Douglass sought to make slaveholding appear to white Americans (among others) as unappealing as it is in reality and thereby persuade his white audiences to adopt abolitionist principles. William Gregson https://www.politics.utoronto.ca/people/directories/graduate-students/william-gregson PhD Candidate Department of Political Science University of Toronto **About the Speaker:** I specialize in political theory, especially critical theory and the history of political thought. My dissertation focuses on the relationship between freedom and recognition and explores how intersubjective recognition is vital for achieving freedom even as it has the potential to inculcate new forms of dependence. Through an engagement with Frederick Douglass, Frantz Fanon, and Judith Butler, the dissertation seeks to paint a more complex historical and theoretical picture of how the concept of recognition evolved to become an important modern category. My work on Fanon and recognition can be read in *Political Theory.* Beyond my engagements with debates on recognition, my interests in political theory extend to questions concerning the role of love in a life of human flourishing. I am currently working on a series of co-authored papers with Joshua D. Goldstein that wrestle with the political and philosophical perplexities posed by modern family life and its institutional boundaries, particularly through a critical engagement with G.W.F. Hegel’s political thought. The first of these articles can be found in *The Review of Metaphysics.* **\* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \*** This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Free pizza and refreshments will be provided at the event. The talk will also be streamed online with live chat [here](https://youtube.com/live/s82P2HZCFU0). About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca): The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life. In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society. The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai

Practice and improve your English through conversation at St. Andrew's Church (73 Simcoe St, downtown Toronto), while making new friends! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- How to Get Here: By TTC, exit at St. Andrew Station. Walk west on King St. West. Do not enter through the church building; the large church front doors will be closed. At the corner of Simcoe St. and King St. West, walk south on Simcoe St. Enter through St. Andrew Centre behind the church building.

Every Wednesday Night! Free Magic The Gathering Commander games at Hairy Tarantula, hosted by Toronto Gaymers! Please note: Masks are required in store! For more information and to RSVP please over to harryt.com/events

Hello Debaters, This evening, at our usual location and time (Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, 7:30pm) please join us for the debate of "Burning plastic for power generation is a better option than a landfill or recycling". What should we do about this very useful but highly problematic material? Join us tonight for to hear the arguments and be part of the discussion.

ABCD Reads "**On Beauty**" by Zadie Smith. [[RESULTS](https://opavote.com/results/4894780714909696) of the poll for this event] **:: ABOUT THE BOOK ::** "This wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars-on both sides of the Atlantic-serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent." (from [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3679.On_Beauty)) "The opening sentence of Zadie Smith's glorious new novel announces the book's provenance: "One may as well begin with Jerome's e-mails to his father" -- an echo, of course, of the opening sentence of E.M. Forster's 1910 novel, "Howards End," which began, "One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister." Although the plot of "On Beauty" hews remarkably closely to "Howards End," Ms. Smith has managed the difficult feat of taking a famous and beloved classic and thoroughly reinventing it to make the story her own. She has taken a novel about Edwardian England -- about class and the competing claims of idealism and money, about a country on the brink of the social upheavals of World War I -- and used it as a launching pad for a thoroughly original tale about families and generational change, about race and multiculturalism in millennial America, about love and identity and the ways they are affected by the passage of time." (from [The New York Times](https://archive.ph/NK1xM)) **:: ABOUT THE EVENT ::** You are welcome to arrive 30 minutes before the event and stay 30 minutes or longer afterward to connect with other attendees outside the book talk. Please ensure you have read the book before attending (though finishing any book is not a barrier to participating, as long as you don't mind spoilers). First-time attendees can join for free. If the event is full, we maintain an unofficial waitlist. Please send [Michael](https://www.meetup.com/members/55295192/) a direct message for more information, in either case. We request a $3 contribution from regular attendees to help cover our monthly meetup costs. **:: ABOUT OUR NEXT BOOK ::** At the end of each event, we will ask for nominees for our next book. If you have a good one in mind, please ensure it is between 200-400 pages long, available from the Toronto Public Library, and counts as contemporary literary fiction (though these are not hard and fast rules). When enough nominees are collected, Michael will send the members a direct message with a link where you can vote.

Let’s do some coding together at a cafe! No more working alone in the weekend. Here, we write code together. And I mean together together. Not occupying-the-same-space-but-separate together. Here’s how it works: Jennifer brings her mobile app project, tells everyone that it is like Pinterest for recipes and she’d like to work on the nav bar. Paul and Chloe think Jennifer's project is fascinating, and they join the group. They gather around Jennifer’s laptop and work on the nav bar for 2 hours. Jennifer is the one typing out the code while Paul and Chloe research, brainstorm, and offer suggestions. If you’re feeling stuck on your own project or need a motivation boost, bring it to mob programming! Want to learn by watching how others code and solve problems? Join someone else’s project at this event! Oh and we love your half-done projects that you are a bit embarrassed to share. Absolutely bring those to the event! **Discord**: We use Discord to share screen & code snippets during the event. Also feel free to share your projects here before the event! https://discord.gg/Da9fZFxPfs **Event policy**: * We have 0 tolerance for harassment. * We don’t allow the projects that are not meant to be shared in public such as school assignments, interview tasks, or trade secrets. * The goal is to write code. We discourage you from pitching business ideas here, doing code reviews, or spending the whole event on planning what to do. * Please buy a drink, and tip the barista well.

Eventbrite Link: **[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/436240616427?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/436240616427?aff=oddtdtcreator)** **Savor the laughter at Sizzling Saturdays! Toronto's comedy spectacle starts at 8 PM. A night of uproarious fun awaits!** Join us for a sizzling Saturday night at 8 PM! Backroom Comedy Club presents a comedy extravaganza featuring Toronto's top comedians. Immerse yourself in an evening of wit, humor, and uproarious laughter. Make your Saturday memorable—reserve your seat now for an unforgettable entertainment experience!

This is a ticketed event. Please register at [this link](https://luma.com/uvgbxv2c). Continual learning is a core ability behind humans’ ability to perform economically valuable tasks. As frontier AI companies train LLM agents to be increasingly autonomous, they are likely aggressively pursuing approaches to continual learning in LLMs. In this talk, [Rohan Subramani](https://rohansubramani.github.io/home/) and [Rauno Arike](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauno-arike/) discuss the potential implications of this development on the capabilities and of LLM agents and its effect on AI safety and alignment.

Eventbrite Link: **[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/448735799857?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/448735799857?aff=oddtdtcreator)** **Indulge in Wednesday wonders! Toronto's comedy sensation unfolds at 8 PM. Unwind with laughter in the heart of the week.** Step into a world of Wednesday wonders at 8 PM! Backroom Comedy Club invites you to a midweek escape filled with uproarious laughter and top-tier stand-up comedy. Join Toronto's finest comedians for an unforgettable evening of entertainment. Reserve your seat now and make your Wednesday delightful with humor, wit, and the best of the city's comedy scene!

[Summary] This meetup is for those who are interested in code, web development, design, cloud, or AI. All levels are welcome, so feel free to bring your laptop and discuss what you are working on or what you are learning. You can share your projects and ideas with other participants freely. There are outlets and WiFi, drinks are about $5 for tea, they take card only. [Price] Attendance is FREE. But you need to buy something from the venue. [Policies] \- We do not tolerate harassment of our members \- We remind users that that this meetup is intended for networking and hobby development\, and any attempts at using this meetup event as a dating platform will not be not be tolerated Further information: https://torontostack.exchange/

Eventbrite Link: **[https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/769789610447?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/769789610447?aff=oddtdtcreator)** **Saturday night sizzles with top-tier laughs! Join us at 10PM for Toronto's premier stand-up comedy showcase. An unforgettable weekend awaits** Elevate your Saturday nights with Toronto's comedy elite! Join us at 10 PM for a captivating showcase at Backroom Comedy Club. Experience an evening of top-tier stand-up, laughter, and unforgettable moments. Reserve your seat now for the ultimate weekend entertainment!

Come out to our monthly meetups if you are: •New to lockpicking and want to learn. •Experienced with locks and lockpicking and excited to teach and exchange knowledge. We have lots of loaner locks and picks for people to try without needing any supplies of their own. Join the Toool Toronto discord https://discord.gg/fuamRhuAdD We are now going back to primarily an in-person meeting. If you would like to join online, its best to bring this up in the #meeting-night-discussion channel beforehand and then find us in our Meeting Room voice channel on Wednesday night. This event is hosted at a volunteer run makerspace: Site 3 coLaboratory 718R Ossington Ave Toronto, ON M6G 3T7

**People Analytics 101: Making Sense of Compensation Data** Compensation data is one of the most widely used and widely misunderstood forms of people analytics. The session will cover where compensation data comes from, including market pricing data, internal payroll data, and benchmarking sources, and how companies think about structuring and analyzing that information. We will explore how compensation data is leveraged to set salary ranges, manage internal equity, support hiring and retention, and align pay with business strategy. A portion of the session will address common data challenges and limitations, such as market noise, inconsistent job matching, and incomplete datasets, while keeping the primary focus on practical use rather than technical depth. The session will also look ahead at where the space is going, including the growing impact of pay transparency laws, expanding pay equity requirements, and emerging regulations in the US and Europe that require organizations to report on gender and pay gaps. The goal is to give attendees a clear mental model for how compensation analytics works today and why getting it right is becoming increasingly critical. (note: we are back at Rev1 this month!) **About Our Speaker** [Alex Moore](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexscottmoore/) is the founder of [Moore Cooperative](https://moorecooperative.com/), where he advises organizations on compensation strategy, pay equity, and people analytics. His work focuses on helping organizations like the Ohio Supreme Court design, analyze, and communicate compensation systems that are data-informed, defensible, and aligned with organizational goals. Alex lives in Granville, Ohio and has three little kiddos. More info at [cbusdaw.com](https://cbusdaw.com)

OWASP is ending use of Meetup, so I built an eventbrite for the event. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-development-risk-case-studies-and-how-agentic-ai-is-the-future-of-appsec-tickets-1981450622150?aff=oddtdtcreator AI is transforming how software is designed, developed, and deployed, dramatically accelerating velocity while introducing new categories of risk. As organizations adopt AI-assisted coding, autonomous agents, and increasingly complex model interactions, traditional application security approaches struggle to keep pace. This talk examines emerging AI-driven risks through real case studies from the field, highlighting issues such as insecure code generation, data-leakage pathways, model manipulation, and evolving supply-chain threats. We will explore how engineering teams must adapt their people, processes, and governance models to secure AI-augmented development workflows effectively. The session will then introduce agentic AI as the next evolution in application security—autonomous systems capable of continuous analysis, multi-step reasoning, and real-time remediation. Attendees will learn how combining agentic AI with modern practices can reduce developer friction, improve coverage, and create a future-ready application security strategy designed for the demands of AI-native software development

### Tools in your AI's Toolbox : An introduction to MCP Servers The generative AI revolution has unlocked unprecedented capabilities, but the next frontier is agency: empowering models to interact with, query, and act upon the world. The current challenge is the “N x M integration problem,” where every AI model requires a custom, brittle integration for each external tool or data source. This approach simply doesn’t scale. How can we give an AI access to our sales leads, code repositories, or IoT devices in a standardized, secure, and reusable way? This session introduces Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open-source framework designed to solve this challenge and become the universal connector—the USB-C port—for AI. MCP standardizes how AI models discover and use external tools, moving beyond simple function-calling to a robust, client-server architecture. We will dive into how this open protocol is creating a new ecosystem for building powerful, context-aware AI agents. Join this session for a developer-focused introduction where you will learn how to: Understand the core concepts of the open-source Model Context Protocol and its architecture. Utilize pre-built, open-source MCP servers to instantly connect AI to tools like Git, Slack, and databases. Build a custom MCP server to securely expose your own proprietary data and APIs as tools for any compliant AI. Move beyond bespoke integrations and contribute to a standardized, collaborative, and open ecosystem. Stop building one-off connectors and start building intelligent agents. This session will give you the practical knowledge to leverage MCP and create the next generation of AI that doesn’t just talk, but does. Want to be a speaker? submit your talk to our Call for Presenters!!! [https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/](https://sessionize.com/azure-cbus-2026/)

Come out to Improving for our monthly iOS and Mac meetings. This Month's Presentation: Bring a lightning talk with you and let's learn some quick things. What is Cocoaheads (http://cocoaheads.org/)? CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer's Cocoa Framework for programming on MacOS X and iOS (including the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch). During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. What is BuckeyeCocoa (http://buckeyecocoa.org/)? BuckeyeCocoa is a group of Objective-C/Swift developers/enthusiasts. We host monthly Cocoaheads and near-weekly NSCoder meetings in Columbus, Ohio. The meetings are free to attend. Presentations! Presenters welcome! We are always in need of people willing to present material. Any Swift and/or Objective-C related topic is welcome. Times can be 5 minutes (i.e. lightning talks) to a maximum of 2 hours. Interested? Contact info is on the BuckeyeCocoa website. To volunteer for a presentation contact us at @BuckeyeCocoa on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter! @BuckeyeCocoa (https://twitter.com/#!/Buckeyecocoa/) For more information: http://buckeyecocoa.org/

**New Dojo Location!** **Draft Day Columbus** 1130 Dublin Road Columbus, OH 43215 We're going to try a new dojo location for a few weeks and see how it works Dojos are informal Python group study sessions where everyone interested in Python gathers to learn about Python, help others with Python, or just hang out. Everyone is welcome from Python beginners to experts. Bringing a laptop is encouraged (we'll have extension cords and power strips). If there's something you want to learn leave a comment on this invite so we can plan ahead. We're looking for topic suggestions and people interested in presenting at our monthly meetings. To this end we've set up a survey form at [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15eBKF1nQQ2XS5gzD4rvhVRHMBEj7lJtHuA9wXupS3Uc)

Join members of the local UX and Digital Design community for a casual monthly breakfast. There _might_ be a little snow, but there _will_ be effectively infinite serve-yourself coffee, so it evens out if you ask me. Just a reminder, while the other locations are great too, we’re at the Lane Ave one this time.

Columbus Code & Coffee is an inclusive, informal co-working session. People of all skill levels attend, and we love it that way. Many people (optionally) bring projects to work on, and many other people (optionally) socialize the entire time. It's entirely up to you! **What to Expect at the Intro Circle** \~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~\~ Near the beginning of the event (1:30 pm), we do a standup: * Organizer announcements, updates, and logistics Round 1 - (7 secs max): * Your name * What you're working on * What you can help others with Round 2: * Community events you wanna plug. If none, that's cool too. Round 3: * Job opportunities you're hiring for OR announce that you are looking for one. If none, that's cool. After the introduction circle, everything is self-organized! Feel free to work alone, pair up, attend one of our workshops/presentations, or mingle!