The labels attached to images used to train machine-vision systems are often wrong. That could mean bad decisions by self-driving cars and medical algorithms. The current boom in artificial intelligence can be traced back to 2012 and a breakthrough during a competition built around ImageNet, a set of 14 million labeled images. In the competition,
Month: March 2021
Spot is a new platform dedicated entirely to walking meetings, launched by a longtime remote work evangelist. Seven years ago, Greg Caplan ditched his desk at Groupon, where he managed the site’s Things to Do category, and committed to doing more things himself. He wanted to travel the world, and he wanted to help others
The makers of Eleuther hope it will be an open source alternative to GPT-3, the well-known language program from OpenAI. Some of the most dazzling recent advances in artificial intelligence have come thanks to resources only available at big tech companies, where thousands of powerful computers and terabytes of data can be as copious as
Both sides are preparing for a potentially protracted battle over ballots and labor practices. It’s been a star-studded, action-packed seven weeks since the union ballots shipped to the workers at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, fulfillment center on February 8. President Joe Biden tweeted out a video of support. Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, and The Matrix director
Manufacturers say the devices remove 99 percent of viruses. Researchers say such claims are unproven, and cheaper air filters are more effective. Last fall, Jeff Kreiter, director of operational services for the school district in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, found himself flooded with proposals to clean the air inside classrooms. The ideas varied—UV lights, air
Everyone knows Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube make money by keeping users engaged. Why won’t their executives admit it to Congress? Anyone who has been paying any attention at all knows that big social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube prioritize user engagement above just about anything else. So why won’t their CEOs admit it?
The Locus Charter asks companies to commit to 10 principles, including minimizing data collection and actively seeking consent from users. As smartphone apps track our every move, a group of technologists in the US and UK this week offered guidelines for the ethical uses of location data. Leaders of the American Geographical Society and Britain’s
The task won’t be easy: Tugboats, excavators, and cranes all may be enlisted to help the Ever Given, while at least 34 other ships wait around the blockage. Every day, some 50 ships pass through the Suez Canal, the waterway slashed between the Mediteranean and the Red Sea. These are big ships: Some 10 percent
The semiconductor giant announced plans to open its factories to others, but it will send some of its most advanced designs to be made in Taiwan. Intel announced on Tuesday that it plans to spend $20 billion to build new chipmaking factories. The move aims to show that the company, and the US, are serious
Is a job offer a way out, or a pathway to soul-crushing disappointment? Megan weighs in. Dear OOO, My job is awful and is crushing my soul. For insurance reasons, though, I can’t quit until I have a new job lined up. This week I got an offer. It’s not my dream job, but it’s
As tech campuses became ghost towns, the people who kept them running—cooks, custodians, drivers—faced an existential threat to their livelihoods. A year ago, while people across America were still taking the subway to work, sharing elevators and conference rooms, Silicon Valley was emptying out. Its companies were among the first to ask that people work
We’re looking for new voices to provide an insider perspective on rapidly changing industries. Between a pandemic, climate change, and advances in technology that continue to reshape almost every way of life, the past year has been a bellwether for work in the US. At WIRED, we believe some of the people best situated to
A new front is opening in the fight to reform Facebook and Google—right at the heart of their business model. When the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google testify later this week at a House hearing, a number of familiar policy reforms will be on the table. Antitrust. Section 230. Privacy legislation. A new campaign
A Pentagon project is testing scenarios involving multiple aircraft that could change the dynamics of air combat. The dogfight hardly seemed fair. Two F-16s engaged with an opposing F-16 at an altitude of 16,000 feet above rocky desert terrain. As the aircraft converged from opposite directions, the paired F-16s suddenly spun away from one another,
Researchers found that social media users are generally adept at identifying fake news. But that doesn’t always affect their decision to repost it. you don’t need a study to know that misinformation is rampant on social media; a quick search on “ vaccines” or “climate change” will confirm that. A more compelling question is why.
More containers have fallen off ships in the past four months than are typically lost in a year. Blame heavy traffic and rolling waves. Since the end of November, this is some of what has sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean: vacuum cleaners; Kate Spade accessories; at least $150,000 of frozen shrimp; and
AI surveillance cameras. Punishing workloads. Low pay. Worker complaints are piling up, and so are the roadblocks. the Netradyne cameras were the last straw. For the past year, Casey had been working as a driver for one of Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners (DSP), the company’s network of last-mile delivery contractors. On busy days, she’d cart
The demise of surveillance capitalism has been greatly exaggerated. Google got some good press a few weeks ago when it announced in a blog post that it would be moving forward with its plans to remove third-party cookies from the Chrome browser. The move had been announced early last year as part of the company’s
Officers’ use of Boston Robotics’ Digidog intensifies concerns about militarization of the police. New York City councilmember Ben Kallos says he “watched in horror” last month when city police responded to a hostage situation in the Bronx using Boston Dynamics’ Digidog, a remotely operated robotic dog equipped with surveillance cameras. Pictures of the Digidog went
The ride-hail giant shifts its stand following a court ruling, part of a global push for a “third category” of workers. For years, Uber has deployed lobbyists to world capitals to protect its business model. Its lawyers have argued that Uber drivers are independent contractors, using a service that connects them with people who need
WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is a good crash course while you wait for the adaptation starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. The new documentary about WeWork begins with Adam Neumann letting out a fart. It’s 2019, and Neumann, the company’s charismatic founder and then-CEO, is recording a video
Also: What to do with clients who want to meet in person? Megan offers her advice. Dear OOO, How do I find a “work wife”? (I know that sounds sort of silly and gender normative, but you know what I mean.) This is my first job. My friends outside work have a best friend in
In a new book, Alec MacGillis explores the growing divide between winner-take-all cities and everywhere else, and the ecommerce giant at the heart of it. The coronavirus pandemic has offered a poignant reminder, as if we needed one, that the United States is a profoundly unequal country. Over the past year, the The Washington Post recently reported,
Paul Davison and Rohan Seth’s audio-only app is the tech crush of the pandemic. Now comes the hard part: hosting a global gabfest, without the toxicity. The Elle magazine article was a shocker. It went live a few days before Christmas and told a story of a journalist who lost her husband and her job
“Hey Siri, help me treat my hypertension.” In 1896, Italian physician Riva Rocci published the first of four papers on an invention that is still widely used. It was his take on the sphygmomanometer, a device to measure the pressure that a pumping heart exerts on the arteries. In other words, blood pressure. Rocci’s basic
Two academics changed plans to attend an invite-only conference this week; a third says he’ll no longer accept funding from the company. Monday morning, some of the world’s top minds in robotics and machine learning convened for a virtual, invite-only research workshop hosted by Google. Two academics invited didn’t log on as scheduled: They withdrew
Managers of the ImageNet data set paved the way for advances in deep learning. Now they’ve taken a big step to protect people’s privacy. In 2012, artificial intelligence researchers engineered a big leap in computer vision thanks, in part, to an unusually large set of images—thousands of everyday objects, people, and scenes in photos that
After approving a $7 billion fund to help students get internet access, lawmakers on the left proposed a $94 billion package to deploy high-speed broadband nationwide. Congress this week approved a $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund that schools and libraries will use to help people get internet access at home. The fund is part of
Some urban designers have long wanted to reduce the area set aside for cars. Covid is giving them a chance. One morning last March—Maura Thomson can’t recall specifically when in the early haze of the pandemic—Thomson and three others piled into a van and set out to bag the meters. Thomson is the interim director
In this week’s Out of Office column, Megan explains how to stand up for yourself when you’re mired in extra work. Dear OOO, For years now, companies I’ve worked for have cut budgets by (first) cutting support staff. But that means senior staff are doing more and more administrative work. I’m not saying this is