Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Digital Ads Are Starting to Feel Psychic
July 17th, 2018Via: The Outline: Earlier this year, my friend Max gave me a knife from Japan as a gift. That evening, as I was lying in bed looking at Instagram, I scrolled passed an ad of what looked like exactly the same knife. I did a double take, got out of bed, retrieved the knife from […]
The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting to No One
July 16th, 2018Via: The Verge: When John Hopstead first descended into the virtual world of Dark Souls in 2013, his mission was to save a decaying world. Famed for its brutal and exacting gameplay, Dark Souls is a popular game to live stream: if you’re going to die hundreds of times, you might as well perish with […]
All Ears: Always-On Listening Devices Could Soon Be Everywhere
July 13th, 2018Via: Wall Street Journal: If every tree falling in every forest might soon be heard by an internet-connected microphone, what hope is there for our privacy? Already when you’re sitting in a room with an iPhone, an Apple Watch and a smart assistant like Amazon Echo or Google Home, you’re surrounded by a dozen microphones. […]
Walmart Patents Surveillance Tool That Can Eavesdrop on Workers and Customers
July 12th, 2018Via: Engadget: The audio surveillance system Walmart designed is composed of several sensors that can collect all kinds of audio data, including beeps and the rustling of paper bags. Any data it gathers can be used to assess an employee’s performance — for instance, the sounds items make when they’re placed inside a bag can […]
AI Startups and the ‘Wizard of Oz Technique’
July 11th, 2018Via: Guardian: It’s hard to build a service powered by artificial intelligence. So hard, in fact, that some startups have worked out it’s cheaper and easier to get humans to behave like robots than it is to get machines to behave like humans. “Using a human to do the job lets you skip over a […]
YouTube Is Fighting Conspiracy Theories with ‘Authoritative’ Context and Outside Links
July 11th, 2018More than ever: https://duckduckgo.com/ Via: The Verge: YouTube is adding “authoritative” context to search results about conspiracy-prone topics like the Moon landing and the Oklahoma City Bombing, as well as putting $25 million toward news outlets producing videos. Today, the company announced a new step in its Google News Initiative, a program it launched in […]
Tesla Will Build Gigafactory in Shanghai to Serve Chinese Market
July 10th, 2018Via: Electrek: Tesla has now confirmed the reports that came out of China this morning about a deal to allow the start of Gigafactory 3 construction in Shanghai. The automaker confirmed the deal and said that it plans to start construction “in the near future” for the first cars to roll off the line in […]
Engine Tests Underway for DARPA ‘Phantom Express’ Spaceplane Program
July 9th, 2018Via: Space News: A space shuttle-era main engine is undergoing a series of daily test firings to demonstrate its suitability for use on a reusable spaceplane under development. The Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine is in the midst of a series of 10 100-second engine firings over the course of 10 days at NASA’s Stennis Space […]
Self-Driving Cars Are Headed Toward an AI Roadblock
July 4th, 2018Via: The Verge: If you believe the CEOs, a fully autonomous car could be only months away. In 2015, Elon Musk predicted a fully autonomous Tesla by 2018; so did Google. Delphi and MobileEye’s Level 4 system is currently slated for 2019, the same year Nutonomy plans to deploy thousands of driverless taxis on the […]
More States Opting to ‘Robo-Grade’ Student Essays by Computer
July 2nd, 2018Via: NPR: Department Of Education Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson cited “huge advances in artificial intelligence in the last few years” and cracked, “I asked Alexa whether she thought we’d ever be able to use computers to reliably score tests, and she said absolutely.”
