In many ways, 2015 saw the demise of cybersecurity as hackers violated website after website, taking security breaches to new levels and compromising the personal data of millions of users around the world. The year also witnessed the steady advance of robotics and artificial intelligence, frequently giving shape to the idea that the future might […]
AI Boss; Apple iMessages; Amazon; McAfee for President?
Posted September 9th, 2015 at 3:39 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Meet the New Boss: The World’s First Artificial-Intelligence Manager? Japanese multinational conglomerate Hitachi recently started an experiment to determine the efficiency of Artificial Intelligence (AI). To that end, it appointed the first AI manager to run a warehouse staffed by humans. The AI chief coaxed an 8 percent increase in efficiency among […]
Google Takes on Sri Lanka; Home Robots; Windows 10; Hammertoss
Posted July 29th, 2015 at 1:07 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Google’s Internet Balloons Will Provide Connectivity to All of Sri Lanka Google’s Project Loon and the government of Sri Lanka have just signed an agreement to provide connectivity to the entire country. The island’s IT Minister, Mangala Samaraweera, said the project — using helium balloons to provide Internet access — will connect […]
Asia Mobile Growth; Toshiba Crisis; Twitter, Digital Attack Map
Posted July 21st, 2015 at 3:50 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: APAC to Reach Two Billion Unique Smartphone Users by 2019 A new Forrester report said the Asia-Pacific region will have two billion unique smartphone users by 2019, accounting for 83 percent of the total unique mobile subscriber base. The number of smartphones in the region passed one billion last year. Toshiba CEO […]
AI Demons; the Solar Race; Bitcoin; Cybersecurity; Firefox
Posted July 7th, 2015 at 4:16 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Five Ideas to End the Demonization of Artificial Intelligence The Future of Life Institute recently announced 37 winners of research grants in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), following concerns and warnings from luminaries such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. The project is […]
Digital Human Rights; Abuse Emojis; Google’s I/O Show; the Robot Wars
Posted May 28th, 2015 at 2:29 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: UN Report: Encryption is Important to Human Rights The United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said digital security and privacy are essential for freedom of expression around the world. A new U.N. report said encryption and anonymity tools help “provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of […]
Hacking to Aid Nepal; ‘Venom’ Bug; Unforgettable Searches; ‘Bleep’ Goes Live
Posted May 13th, 2015 at 2:46 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Nepal’s Aid System Is Broken. So These Lifesavers Hacked It As Nepal’s government and NGOs struggle to cope with the devastation of the country’s second major earthquake in less than a month, a group of young people armed with Facebook, open source mapping technology and a lot of nerve have come together […]
Watson Learns Japanese; Hospital Robots; Samsung’s Smart TV Debacle
Posted February 11th, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-4)
Today’s Tech Sightings: Gaming Can Give Troubled Teens Another Shot at Learning Game developer Kuato’s game, Hakitzu, a hit in London schools, already has been used in more than 1 million coding sessions. The game lets students, some of whom have had various issues, learn how to code by leading a robot through an adventure-shooter scenario. […]
Tech Sightings, September 2, 2014
Posted September 2nd, 2014 at 2:21 pm (UTC-4)
The Cult of Xiaomi Seeks World Domination Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi grabbed14% share of the smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, after outselling even Apple. And the events the company hosts to encourage and reward its fans are creating something of a rock concert feel that might make Xiaomi’s advance in the […]