Musk’s Neuralink Faces Federal Inquiry After Killing 1,500 Animals in Testing
By: The Guardian December 6, 2022 Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations. Neuralink […]
Two Women Sue Apple Over AirTag Stalking
By: The New York Times December 6, 2022 Two women sued Apple on Monday over the dangers of its AirTag tracking devices in the hands of stalkers, saying the company had failed to heed warnings from advocacy groups and news reports. The proposed class action lawsuit was filed on Monday in the United […]
AI Bot ChatGPT Stuns Academics With Essay-Writing Skills and Usability
By: The Guardian December 6, 2022 Professors, programmers and journalists could all be out of a job in just a few years, after the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded OpenAI foundation stunned onlookers with its writing ability, proficiency at complex tasks, and ease of use. The system, called ChatGPT, is the latest […]
Amazon’s Quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of Robotics
By: Wall Street Journal December 3, 2022 For decades, one of the hardest problems for robot developers to crack has been something seemingly mundane: how to replicate the human hand’s ability to pick up stuff. Amazon.com has just come a lot closer to achieving this elusive goal, with a leap in its automation prowess […]
For U.S. Tech, India’s Draft Privacy Bill Has Hidden Risks
By: Wall Street Journal December 3, 2022 There isn’t much the Indian government and Meta Platforms see eye to eye on. And yet earlier this week, the U.S. social-media giant’s president of global affairs called a reworked draft of the country’s data-protection bill a promising turn of events. The fourth iteration of the long-pending privacy bill, released […]
Social Media Firms Face Big UK Fines if They Fail to Stop Sexist and Racist Content
By: The Guardian November 28, 2022 Social media platforms that breach pledges to block sexist and racist content face the threat of substantial fines under government changes to the online safety bill announced on Monday. Under the new approach, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter must also give users the option of […]
‘Part of the Kill Chain’: How Can We Control Weaponised Robots?
By: The Guardian November 20, 2022 The security convoy turned on to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Boulevard at around 3:30pm on 27 November 2020. The VIP was the Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, widely regarded as the head of Iran’s secret nuclear weapons programme. He was driving his wife to their country property, flanked by bodyguards […]
What We Lose When Companies Make Things Easier for Consumers
By: The Wall Street Journal November 18, 2022 In Silicon Valley-speak, “friction” is any physical or psychological barrier that might prevent a potential buyer from buying or using a good or service. Eliminating that friction, or “pain point,” often by way of technology, has therefore become the vaunted business model, if not the raison d’être, […]
Israel Deploys Remote-Controlled Robotic Guns in West Bank
By: AP News November 16, 2022 In two volatile spots in the occupied West Bank, Israel has installed robotic weapons that can fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets at Palestinian protesters. The weapons, perched over a crowded Palestinian refugee camp and in a flashpoint West Bank city, use artificial intelligence to track […]