Month: December 2020

After a year of protests against racial inequality and industry vows to do better, Black founders are still getting left out of Silicon Valley’s financial engine. Last year, Vern Howard met with a number of venture capitalists to pitch his digital events startup, Hallo. The meetings did not always go well. In the office of
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Phone calls. Web searches. Location tracks. Smart speaker requests. They’ve become crucial tools for law enforcement, while users often are unaware.  Michael Williams’ every move was being tracked without his knowledge—even before the fire. In August, Williams, an associate of R&B star and alleged rapist R. Kelly, allegedly used explosives to destroy a potential witness’s
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The pandemic and the election forced social media platforms to police false information like never before—but we have no clue if that solved anything. “I don’t think it’s right for a private company to censor politicians or the news in a democracy.”—Mark Zuckerberg, October 17, 2019 “Facebook Removes Trump’s Post About Covid-19, Citing Misinformation Rules”—The
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The hottest app of early 2010 faded quickly when it was flooded with unwanted nudity. Smarter content moderation is helping to revive it. A decade ago, Chatroulette was an internet supernova, exploding in popularity before collapsing beneath a torrent of male nudity that repelled users. Now, the app, which randomly pairs strangers for video chats,
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Total traffic deaths fell during pandemic lockdowns. But fatalities per mile traveled rose, due to faster driving, fewer cops, and more drug use. In theory, bringing society to a screeching halt should curtail traffic deaths. No one’s going to bars and then driving home; few are commuting to work; the occasional trip to the grocery
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David Silver of DeepMind, who helped create the program that defeated a Go champion, thinks rewards are central to how machines—and humans—acquire knowledge. David Silver is responsible for several eye-catching demonstrations of artificial intelligence in recent years, working on advances that helped revive interest in the field after the last great AI Winter. At DeepMind,
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The companies are backing proposals in other states that would give workers the ability to form unions—but still consider them contractors, not employees. In November, gig companies including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart helped pass California’s Proposition 22, effectively writing their own labor law. Now the companies plan to bring similar legislation elsewhere. Last month,
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Local health departments rely on the old-fangled tech to track cases. A hastily developed machine-learning program gives it an assist. Alison Stribling has learned a lot about infectious disease since she transferred onto Covid-19 response at the health department in Contra Costa County near San Francisco. One of her discoveries: How vital fax machines are
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