The Redmond doctrine
By: The Economist September 12, 2019 IS MICROSOFT A digital nation and does it have a secretary of state? The answer of Brad Smith, the software giant’s top lawyer, is, well, diplomatic. Nation states are run by governments and firms need to be accountable to them, he says. But yes, he admits, he worries a […]
How the world will change as computers spread into everyday objects
By: The Economist September 12, 2019 O N AUGUST 29TH, as Hurricane Dorian tracked towards America’s east coast, Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, an electric-car maker, announced that some of his customers in the storm’s path would find that their cars had suddenly developed the ability to drive farther on a single battery charge. […]
Shop closures and self-checkouts cost tens of thousands of women’s jobs
By: Robert Booth September 12, 2019 A surge in shop closures and the growth of automated retail are forcing tens of thousands of women out of work, according to a study of the economic pain caused by high street decline. With twice as much UK shopping now online than in 2011 and amid a wave […]
What’s Wrong with the News?
By: Alexandra Borchardt September 11, 2019 The rise of data analytics has made journalists and their editors confident that they know what the people want. Why, then, did almost one-third of respondents to the Reuters Institute’s latest Digital News Report say that they regularly avoid news altogether? OXFORD – The British public can’t get enough […]
Technology New tech to help disabled people
By: Laura Potier September 8, 2019 Electrical stimulation Nine years ago, David Mzee was left paralysed by a gymnastics accident and told he would never walk again. Last week, he competed in a charity run during which he walked 390 metres, thanks to an experimental treatment that uses electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to […]
Inequality – Why and How Might Investors Respond to Economic Inequality?
By: PRI OVERVIEW Economic inequality, understood as the gap between the rich and poor in income and wealth, has received extensive and continuing attention in public and academic discourse across the globe since the financial crisis.1 New research on the nature, causes and consequences of inequality seems to come every week, and considerable political discussion […]
Decentralisation: the next big step for the world wide web
By: Zoe Corbyn September 8, 2019 The story that broke early last month that Google would again cooperate with Chinese authorities to run a censored version of its search engine, something the tech giant has neither confirmed nor denied, had ironic timing. The same day, a group of 800 web builders and others – among […]
Chinese netizens get privacy-conscious
By: The Economist September 7, 2019 ON THE NIGHT of August 30th, soon after ZAO—an app whose name means “to make”—was launched, it proved so wildly popular that its servers crashed repeatedly. Almost as rapidly, a sudden backlash from its many fans nearly unmade it. Technology-news outlets and meticulous netizens who had combed through the […]
Artificial intelligence is changing every aspect of war
By: The Economist September 7, 2019 A S THE NAVY plane swooped low over the jungle, it dropped a bundle of devices into the canopy below. Some were microphones, listening for guerrilla footsteps or truck ignitions. Others were seismic detectors, attuned to minute vibrations in the ground. Strangest of all were the olfactory sensors, sniffing […]