Lawmakers batter Big Tech CEOs, but don’t land many blows
By: AP News July 30, 2020 Congressional lawmakers finally got a chance Wednesday to grill the CEOs of Big Tech over their dominance and allegations of monopolistic practices that stifle competition. But it’s not clear how much they advanced their goal of bringing some of the world’s largest companies to heel. Invective flew as legislators […]
Is China’s Effort to Mass Collect DNA the Future of Policing?
By: New York Times July 24, 2020 For several years now, the police and other authorities in China have been collecting across the country DNA samples from millions of men and boys who aren’t suspected of having committed any crime. In a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute last month, we exposed the extent of […]
A Crispr Calf Is Born. It’s Definitely a Boy
By: Wired July 24, 2020 HE CALF WAS late. His due date, March 30, had come and gone. At first, Alison Van Eenennaam chalked it up to male calves tending to arrive a day or two on the tardy side. As the week wore on, the animal geneticist reminded herself that gene-edited embryos—like the one that had been […]
Apple will give employees paid time off to vote in November, report says
By: CNET July 24, 2020 Apple has told employees it’ll provide them with paid time off to vote in the US presidential election on Nov. 3, according to a report. Workers who wish to vote that Tuesday will be given up to four hours of pay, Bloomberg reported Friday citing an internal Apple memo. It follows Twitter […]
Morgan Stanley blocks remote network access for China interns
By: Financial Times July 23, 2020 Morgan Stanley is taking an extra security step that singled it out from other global financial companies. While a large number of workers around the globe have had to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, interns in China haven’t had the same access. The company is blocking its interns in China from accessing […]
US investors try to buy TikTok from Chinese owner
By: Financial Times July 23, 2020 A group of US tech investors has launched an ambitious plan to buy TikTok from its Chinese owner, as the popular short video app tries to escape being banned by the White House. The investors, led by the venture capital firms General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, are in discussions […]
Facebook to investigate claims its algorithms are discriminatory
By: The Guardian July 22, 2020 Facebook is launching an investigation into whether its algorithms discriminate against minority ethnic groups, after internal protests forced the company to reassess the possibility that its machine learning systems could have picked up on real-world bias. The company’s new “equity and inclusion” teams will be tasked with assessing the algorithms […]
TikTok’s UK headquarters in doubt amid US pressure
By: BBC July 19, 2020 TikTok’s plan to base its international HQ in the UK has been thrown into doubt following pressure by Washington over the Chinese firm’s future in the US. ByteDance, owner of the video sharing app, has had talks with the government about basing its HQ in London. But the US is […]
World faces staggering jobs challenge, says Microsoft president
By: BBC July 18, 2020 The world is facing a staggering jobs challenge with a quarter of a billion people set to lose their job this year, the president of Microsoft has said. Brad Smith says millions will need to learn new skills to get jobs, or even to hang on to their old one, […]