Amazon Halts Police Use Of Its Facial Recognition Technology
By: NPR June 12, 2020 Amazon announced on Wednesday a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial-recognition technology, yielding to pressure from police-reform advocates and civil rights groups. It is unclear how many law enforcement agencies in the U.S. deploy Amazon’s artificial intelligence tool, but an official with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon confirmed […]
Corporate kowtow to China’ lands HSBC in a deep political hole
By: The Guardian June 10, 2020 Now it gets serious for HSBC. It’s one thing to be accused, rightly, by pundits and even the odd shareholder, of “kowtowing to China” by supporting publicly the security crackdown law for Hong Kong. The stakes become higher when the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, makes the same […]
The Global Implications of “Re-education” Technologies in Northwest China
By: Newlines Institute June 08, 2020 Since May 2014, when Chinese Communist Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian announced the People’s War on Terror in the Uighur region, Chinese technology firms have received billions of dollars in Chinese state capital to build a comprehensive Muslim “re-education” system in Northwest China. Over the same period of time they have created a […]
Zoom to exclude free calls from end-to-end encryption to allow FBI cooperation
By: The Guardian June 04, 2020 Zoom, the popular video conferencing platform, has announced it will provide end-to-end encryption after facing a litany of privacy and security concerns – but only to users who pay for it. Eric Yuan, the company’s CEO, raised alarm among privacy advocates on Wednesday by saying Zoom planned to exclude […]
ESG investors get their heads around social risks
By: The Economist June 04, 2020 Covid-19 has brought out the best and the worst of the corporate world. Carmakers are producing ventilators, and consumer firms are making hand-cleaning gels. Some others, though, have drawn complaints for their treatment of their employees during the pandemic. Such considerations touch on what sustainable investors call “social” risks, part […]
AI firm that worked with Vote Leave given new coronavirus contract
By: The Guardian June 02, 2020 An artificial intelligence firm hired to work on the Vote Leave campaign may analyse social media data, utility bills and credit rating scores as part of a £400,000 contract to help the government deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The company, Faculty, was awarded the contract by the Ministry of Housing, […]
Protests Renew Scrutiny of Tech’s Ties to Law Enforcement
By: Wired June 02, 2017 THE COLLECTIVE OUTRAGE over the murder of George Floyd has led to nationwide protests, renewed calls for police reform, and uncharacteristically swift support for racial equity from Silicon Valley leaders. The backlash has been swift as well. Critics are calling out many companies now pledging support for Black Lives Matter, accusing them of […]
Robot uprising begins? Microsoft fires journalists, replaces them with AI
By: Financial Express June 01, 2020 The team working on the Microsoft website did not publish original stories but instead exercised editorial control, choosing articles created by other news outlets and, where necessary, editing material and headlines to suit the format. Read Full Article
A Tokyo Hospital Is Live Streaming Surgeries In Virtual Reality
By: Futurism May 29, 2020 In order to protect medical students and doctors during the coronavirus pandemic, a hospital in Tokyo has started livestreaming surgical procedures in virtual reality for students stuck at home. At Tokyo Women’s Medical University, which is known for experimenting with medical robots and AI algorithms, surgeons are now performing operations […]