The complex ethics of Google’s controversial Project Nightingale
By: Siliconrepublic Dec 04, 2019 The US’s second-largest health system, Ascension, has agreed to allow Google access to tens of millions of patient records. The partnership, called Project Nightingale, aims to improve how information is used for patient care. Specifically, Ascension and Google are trying to build tools, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, “to make health […]
SpaceX’s Satellite Constellation Could Hide Killer Asteroids
By: Futurism December 04, 2019 SpaceX’s Starlink satellites could cost us more than a clear view of the stars. Astronomers have told Axios they fear the mega-constellation of tiny satellites could make it harder to spot asteroids near Earth — and that could mean they might not see one on a collision course with our planet in time […]
China is using blood from minorities for genetic research
By: Futurism December 04, 2019 China is running a disturbing genetic experiment on its persecuted Muslim Uigher population: trying to digitally reconstruct their faces based on genetic code. China has rounded up at least a million Uighurs and other minorities and placed them in detention camps. And now, The New York Times reports that the country is using […]
Scientists finally build artificial brain cells
By: Futurism Dec 03, 2019 Scientists have finally decoded the bizarre behaviors of brain cells — and recreated them in tiny computer chips. The tiny neurons could change the way we build medical devices because they replicate healthy biological activity but require only a billionth of the energy needed by microprocessors, according to a University of […]
Global Bank Job Cull Tops 75,000 This Year as UniCredit Cuts
By: Bloomberg Law Dec 03, 2019 UniCredit SpA’s plan to eliminate 8,000 jobs is pushing cuts announced by banks this year past 75,000, almost all of them in Europe, where negative interest rates and a slowing economy force lenders to slash costs. Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier on Tuesday announced the measures as part of the next, […]
Silicon Valley giants accused of avoiding over $100 billion in taxes over the last decade
By: Consumer News and Business Channel Dec 03, 2019 Six of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies had a combined “tax gap” of more than $100 billion this decade, according to a new analysis. Fair Tax Mark, a British organization that certifies businesses for good tax conduct, assessed global tax payments from Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google […]
Gen Z, Climate Change Activism, & Foreign Policy, with Tatiana Serafin
By: Carnegie Council Audio Podcast Generation Z makes up over 30 percent of the world’s population and this group of people, most under the age of 20, are already having an extraordinary effect on society, culture, and politics. Tatiana Serafin, journalism professor at Marymount Manhattan College, breaks down the power of this generation, focusing on […]
Huawei under fire in China over employee detained for eight months
By: The Guardian December 02, 2019 The Chinese telecom corporation Huawei has come under fire in its own country as members of the public rallied behind a former employee detained for eight months after demanding severance pay from the company. Last January, Li Hongyuan, a Huawei employee of 13 years, was arrested on extortion charges and detained […]
The migrants who made China an industrial giant face a grim retirement
By: Economist Nov 30 , 2019 Even in a China filled with the shiny and the new, the southern city of Guangzhou stands out. A generation ago it was a smoggy, sweltering sprawl of factories and workshops, a bit embarrassed by its history as a semi-colony of Western powers, who knew it as Canton. Now Guangzhou […]