Facebook Pledges $100 Million To Aid News Outlets Hit Hard By Pandemic
By: National Public Radio March 30, 2020 Facebook says it’s dedicating $100 million to prop up news organizations pummeled by the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Just two weeks ago, the company announced it would devote $1 million to aid local newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada covering the crisis. It turns out, Facebook was already thinking about […]
Countries are using apps and data networks to keep tabs on the pandemic
By: The Economist March 26, 2020 Having been quarantined at his parents’ house in the Hebei province in northern China for a month, Elvis Liu arrived back home in Hong Kong on February 23rd. Border officials told him to add their office’s number to his WhatsApp contacts and to fix the app’s location-sharing setting to “always […]
Coronavirus is the first big test for futuristic tech that can prevent pandemics
By: vox Feb 27, 2020 The novel coronavirus that first appeared in mainland China has now spread across the world, with more than 82,000 reported cases and nearly 3,000 deaths, as of Thursday. And right alongside the outbreak is the deployment of myriad types of AI-powered tech that is now being put on full display. New technology like infrared thermometers […]
Barclays drops staff spying software after backlash
By: Telegraph Feb 20, 2020 Barclays is scrapping technology which allowed bosses to spy on its bankers following a backlash over the invasion of staff privacy. The bank is axing tracking software which allows managers to see how long employees are spending away from their desks and the time it takes to do different tasks at their computers. Introduced in […]
Inside Trump’s Facebook campaign
By: The Guardian February 19, 2020 Guardian US tech reporter Julia Carrie Wong spent a year analysing Trump’s Facebook campaign. She discusses how the sophisticated social media machine is targeting voters. And Leah Green reflects on the death of former Love Island presenter Caroline Flack. During 2019, Donald Trump’s campaign spent nearly $20m (£15.4m) on […]
Edison, Morse … Watson? AI Poses Test of Who’s an Inventor
By: Bloomberg Feb 18, 2020 Computers using artificial intelligence are discovering medicines, designing better golf clubs and creating video games. But are they inventors? Patent offices around the world are grappling with the question of who — if anyone — owns innovations developed using AI. The answer may upend what’s eligible for protection and who […]
AI is inadvertently fueling the ability to cause harm. Here’s how companies can protect each other, and their customers.
By: Linkedin February 14, 2019 What prompted Rep. Adam Schiff to send these letters was the spread of anti-vaccination propaganda on Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Schiff’s concern is not an idle one: by April 2019 the incidence of measles in the United States was at its second highest since the disease was thought to […]
Welfare surveillance system violates human rights, Dutch court rules
By: The Guardian Feb 05, 2020 A Dutch court has ordered the immediate halt of an automated surveillance system for detecting welfare fraud because it violates human rights, in a judgment likely to resonate well beyond the Netherlands. The case was seen as an important legal challenge to the controversial but growing use by governments around […]
They know us better than we know ourselves: how Amazon tracked my last two years of reading
By: The Guardian Feb 03, 2020 When I requested my personal information from Amazon this month under California’s new privacy law, I received mostly what I expected: my order history, shipping information and customer support chat logs. But tucked into the dozens of files were also two Excel spreadsheets, more than 20,000 lines each, with titles, time […]