Hardly a day goes by without news about a breakthrough in machine intelligence or some debate about its pros and cons, more recently between Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk. Adding his voice to the mix, author and IT specialist Peter Scott warns that rapid AI growth comes with serious risks that, if […]
‘Devil’s Ivy’ Bug Hits IoT Devices; China Begins VPN Crackdown
Posted July 20th, 2017 at 12:57 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Millions of IoT Devices Hit by ‘Devil’s Ivy’ Bug in Open Source Code Library Cybersecurity experts have been warning about potential risks to Internet of Things (IoT) devices for months. Now, millions of IoT devices, including Axis Communications’ security cameras, are vulnerable to remote attacks because of a flaw in a widely-used […]
AI Ethics Missing as Machine Learning Advances
Posted June 9th, 2017 at 11:53 am (UTC-4)
Teaching a computer to “think” the way the human brain does means feeding it huge amounts of real-world data so that it can learn, analyze, predict, and solve problems. But in this brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, there are no ethical guidelines, no regulations, and no parameters to govern how […]
Microsoft Conference Digs Deep Into AI; Malawi First to Use OpenTrial
Posted May 10th, 2017 at 12:30 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Microsoft Fully Dives Into Artificial Intelligence CEO Satya Nadela kicked off Microsoft’s Build 2017 developer conference in Seattle, Washington, Wednesday, with a call for technological empowerment. The Azure cloud platform and artificial intelligence are part of the company’s push to create smarter interactions between technology and users across multiple devices. The three-day […]
Emojis Tackle Language Disorders; Parsing Future Tech From Fiction
Posted April 25th, 2017 at 1:52 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Samsung Develops Emoji-based Chat App for Language Disorders More often than not, people use emojis for fun when they chat. But for those with language disorders like aphasia, which makes reading, writing and talking difficult, emojis might be just the thing to help facilitate communication. To address the gap, Samsung’s Italian subsidiary […]
Twitter Restricts Abusive Users; IBM, VISA Team Up for IoT
Posted February 16th, 2017 at 12:56 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Twitter Starts Temporarily Restricting Abusive Accounts Twitter will now temporarily restrict users who engage in abuse and sexual harassment online so that only their followers are able to see their tweets. The move also prevents these tweets from being retweeted to non-followers. This is the latest in a series of measures Twitter […]
White House Tackles AI Potential, Risks; Britain Unprepared for AI
Posted October 12th, 2016 at 12:39 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: White House: AI Has Potential to Be Major Driver of Economic Growth, Social Progress A study commissioned by the White House earlier this year to look into the potential impact of artificial intelligence has concluded the technology holds much promise. But the writers also caution that strong vigilance is needed, saying the […]
R.I.P Galaxy Note 7; Huawei Gets Serious About AI
Posted October 11th, 2016 at 2:31 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Samsung Kills Galaxy Note 7 Over Fire Concerns Samsung on Tuesday killed its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, weeks after reports started coming in that the phones were exploding or going up in smoke. Even after a global recall of 2.5 million devices, so-called “safe” replacement smartphones also ran into trouble. The […]
Tech Firms Scramble After Brexit; Windows 10 Update Coming August 2
Posted June 29th, 2016 at 11:55 am (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Brexit Fallout Begins as Vodafone Warns It Could Move Headquarters Out of UK Britain’s biggest technology company – Vodafone – could move its headquarters out of Britain after the country’s vote to exit the European Union. The move is contingent on understanding the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU. The […]