Today’s Tech Sightings: Google Now Will Tell You Where You Can Vote in US Election The clock is ticking ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, and Google is offering to point you in the direction of the nearest polling station. Starting Thursday, searching in English or Spanish for “where to vote” will yield […]
Google Search Points Out US Election Polls; Twitter Bot Tracks Dictators
White House Tackles AI Potential, Risks; Britain Unprepared for AI
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
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 […]
Apple CEO Slams EU; Tech Firms Forge Artificial Intelligence Ethics
Today’s Tech Sightings: Apple’s Tim Cook: EU Ruling on Apple’s Irish Tax ‘Total Political Crap’ Apple CEO Tim Cook described the European Union’s demand that his company pay nearly $14.5 billion in back taxes as “total political crap.” The EU had said Apple was getting illegal state aid in Ireland, whose government is divided on […]
India to Probe WhatsApp Privacy; DeepMind, UK Join to Fight Cancer
Today’s Tech Sightings: WhatsApp in Hot Water in India Over Privacy Policy Changes Messaging service WhatsApp’s about-face on privacy has raised eyebrows in the U.S., Europe, and now in India. New Delhi’s High Court has asked the government and telecom regulators to look into WhatsApp data-sharing after some users complained about changes in its privacy […]
US to Cede Internet DNS Control; Window’s 10’s Data Mining Dilemma
Today’s Tech Sightings: US: We’re Now Ready to Give Up Governing the Internet The U.S. National Telecommunications & Information Administration says it is now ready to pass internet domain name (DNS) control to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit organization. The move marks the end of a 20-year U.S. […]
Tech Giants Look to DNA for Data Storage; Zuckerberg’s Webcam Tape
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Future of Storage May Be in DNA It used to be a big deal to have a hard drive with 20 or 40 megabytes of storage space. Now they can fit terabytes of data. But the sheer volume of space needed now and in the future to store all of humanities’ […]
Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game; the Future With AI
Today’s Tech Sightings: Elon Musk: We’re Probably Living in a Video Game Speaking at California’s Code Conference, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk warned that the lines between the real world and increasingly-sophisticated simulated environments could become so blurred that it will be hard to distinguish reality from simulation. The scenario is not […]
Chinese Proposals Tighten Internet Control; Law Firm Hires AI Robot
Today’s Tech Sightings: US: Proposed Chinese Regulations Could Fragment the Internet China is planning to push forward with new proposals requiring domain names to be registered through government-licensed providers. If the new rules are approved, they would also prevent some websites whose content is broadly defined as prohibited from registering. In a statement, U.S. officials […]