To err is human – is that why we fear machines that can be made to err less?
By: The Guardian Dec 14, 2019 One of the things that really annoys AI researchers is how supposedly “intelligent” machines are judged by much higher standards than are humans. Take self-driving cars, they say. So far they’ve driven millions of miles with very few accidents, a tiny number of them fatal. Yet whenever an autonomous […]
Furious shareholders front ‘incompetent’ Westpac executives at AGM
By: The Guardian December 12, 2019 Furious shareholders in scandal-ridden Westpac have blasted the bank’s board and management as “incompetent” – or worse – over its handling of the money laundering and child exploitation scandal arising from breaches of Austrac obligations at its annual meeting in Sydney on Thursday. The mood was grim among the […]
This is how Facebook learns what you buy at physical stores in order to show you relevant ads – and how to opt out
By: Business Insider December 12, 2019 If you recently bought something at a physical store, you might have noticed an uptick in the number of Facebook ads you saw related to that store or the item you bought.The phenomenon – which has been documented by Reddit and Twitter users – is not a coincidence. […]
A Kid In A Refugee Camp Thought Video Games Fell From Heaven. Now He Makes Them
By: National Public Radio Dec 11, 2019 Lual Mayen, a video game developer based in Washington, D.C., remembers the first time he saw a computer. He was just a kid at the time. It was 2007, and his family was registering for benefits at a refugee camp in Uganda, where they’d settled after fleeing civil […]
Winner-takes-all digital economy poses risk for capital markets
By: Financial Times Dec 10, 2020 The trend of human tasks being replaced by algorithms is a perennial and understandable focus for the debate about how technology is changing capital markets. Policymakers, however, are already focusing on a longer-term trend: how the benefits of scale in digital industries will concentrate activity among a smaller […]
The Individual & the Collective, Politics, & the UN, with Jean-Marie Guéhenno
By: Carnegie Council Audio Podcast December 10, 2019 Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former head of United Nations peacekeeping operations, discusses the tensions between the individual and the collective in a world filled with political tension, pervasive surveillance, and fear of risk. What is the role of the UN in this environment? How can […]
Jobs of the future are clustering in a handful of U.S. cities, study finds
By: Reuters Dec 09, 2019 Divergence in job growth, incomes and future prospects between strong-performing cities and the rest of the country is an emerging focus of political debate and economic research. It is seen as a source of social stress, particularly since President Donald Trump tapped the resentment of left-behind areas in his 2016 […]
UK Government Gives NHS Data to Amazon for Free
By: Pcmag Dec 09, 2019 Earlier this year, the UK government announced a partnership with Amazon that let Alexa tap into information available on the National Health Service (NHS) website to answer health questions. The idea was that UK residents could get health information from Amazon’s voice assistant instead of overloading NHS hotlines with simple queries. But […]
Defiant Mark Zuckerberg Defends Facebook Policy to Allow False Ads
By: The national digest December 07, 2019 Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has defended the company’s decision to not take down political advertising that contains false information – and compared the alternative to censorship. Challenged on CBS over the policy, which has raised concerns over misinformation campaigns that could distort elections, Zuckerberg refused to commit […]