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 […]
Investors row back on ethical principles, research shows
By: Financial Times May 27, 2020 Nine out of 10 investors would prioritise a company’s economic recovery over its ethical principles, in a sign that investor commitment to more responsible forms of investing is faltering in the market downturn. A new survey by Boston Consulting Group, the management consultants, found that 92 per cent of […]
Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive
By: The Wall Street Journal May 26, 2020 A Facebook Inc. team had a blunt message for senior executives. The company’s algorithms weren’t bringing people together. They were driving people apart. “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” read a slide from a 2018 presentation. “If left unchecked,” it warned, Facebook would feed […]
Creepy Technologies Invade European Workplaces
By: Bloomberg May 22, 2017 A “Romware Covid Radius bracelet” beeps every time a Tata Steel Ltd. worker in the U.K. or a docker at Belgium’s Antwerp port is within virus-catching distance of someone. At Bouygues SA construction sites and in Sanofi and Schneider Electric SE offices in France employees enter after thermal cameras check […]
Oops: China Just Dropped a Huge Rocket Piece Back to Earth
By: Futurism May 12, 2020 Parts of China’s gigantic Long March 5B rocket finally made their uncontrolled descent back to Earth on Monday, CNN reports. Pieces of debris soared over the continental United States before splashing into the Atlantic Monday afternoon, as confirmed by the US Air Force. “For a large object like this, dense […]
Darpa Is About To Launch A Military Version Of Spacex’s Starlink
By: Futurism May 12, 2020 DARPA, the research wing of the U.S. Military, is preparing to launch an orbital mesh network similar to SpaceX’s Starlink. The first satellite for the Blackjack network will launch later this year, C4ISRNET reports. While there’s still lots of testing, simulation, and launching to be done before Blackjack is complete, […]
AI cannot be recognised as an inventor, US rules
By: New York Times April 29, 2020 An artificial intelligence system has been refused the right to two patents in the US, after a ruling only “natural persons” could be inventors. The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected two patents where the AI system Dabus was listed as the inventor, in a ruling on Monday. […]