All Technology
- First LookShould public officials' private messages be a part of the public record?
As private messaging apps that erase digital records proliferate, lawmakers are debating whether private messages and social media records should be publicly available under state open records laws.
- First LookFacebook flounders as referee in gray area of online comments
The social media giant finds itself on a slippery slope determining which types of comments and stories should be banned on its site. As a work around, Facebook might label disputed stories as such and show content offering a different point of view.
- From Russia, with hashtags? How social bots dilute online speech
Pro-Kremlin accounts on Twitter are auto-posting “decoy” hashtags to limit the social reach of real hashtags, illustrating one of the ways that malevolent social bots throw sand in the gears of our political discourse.
- First LookFor Facebook, robotics may lead the future of AI
Facebook has hired a leading roboticist to develop artificial intelligence technology that uses fewer data and more common sense – a change that may be able to help AI adapt to the unpredictable nature of real life, experts say.
- First LookUS tariffs could spur tech development in China
President Trump's administration is poised to increase tariffs for Chinese goods on Friday. But instead of hurting the Chinese tech economy, the trade riff could create an opportunity for China to move away from its dependance on American-made tech products and develop its own.
- Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents
The US Patent office's 10 millionth patent is a testament to American innovation. But the patent rolls also shed light on a persistent challenge: gender disparities in innovation-heavy fields.
- First LookCalifornia approves wide-ranging data privacy bill
Under the law, consumers can ask companies to delete or not sell their personal information. The move – similar to EU privacy regulations – comes after large data breaches in recent years, most prominently Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of Facebook data.
- First LookFlorida airport to begin scanning faces of international passengers
Orlando International Airport will employ face scanners for passengers on arriving and departing international flights, a move that airport authorities claim will speed up customs, while privacy advocates worry about the lack of formal rules in place for the data from the scans.
- First LookVigilante hackers work to save human trafficking victims
When law enforcement agencies are short-staffed or underfunded, it can be difficult to catch human traffickers through the dark web. That's why hackers are working to fill in the gaps, despite lingering skepticism about vigilantism.
- Free speech advocates sound alarm over EU copyright proposal
A potential EU law would restrict links to news outlets and impose content filters on user uploads, raising age-old questions about how much control copyright holders should exert over their content.
- First LookElon Musk to build high-speed transportation system in Chicago
The transit system is expected to be completed in three years and whisk riders from O'Hare airport to downtown in just 12 minutes. While some argue it could stimulate job growth, others claim it places the interests of billionaires ahead of neighborhoods and taxpayers.
- First LookJapan inches closer to ultra-precise 3-D maps for self-driving cars
Japan wants to develop the crucial technology quickly to ensure driverless car ubiquity by 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics.
- Cloud? Mall? Why internet metaphors matter in net neutrality debate
Whether it's a highway, a net, a wave, a cloud, a library, a shopping mall, a walled garden, or a village square, the metaphors we use to think about what the internet is have a way of conditioning what we think it ought to be, and vice versa.
- The ExplainerExplained: A US pilot program for unmanned aircraft
A new pilot program aims to inform future federal regulations on commercial drones.
- Will Europe's new web privacy rules also bring global standards of trust?
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect today, presents an opportunity for technology companies around the globe to reestablish trust with their customers.
- First LookSecurity advocates challenge facial recognition in policing
Several privacy advocate organizations have penned a letter to Amazon, asking the corporation to stop marketing new facial recognition software to police stations. The group argues that the powerful technology equates to government surveillance.
- First LookSocial media ads under scrutiny in Irish abortion referendum
With Facebook and Google restricting or banning ads, groups on both sides of the highly emotionally charged campaign have had to adjust their strategies and expressed frustration at the ability of foreign-based tech firms to make important decisions about appropriate content.
- The captainless research vessel
Robotic boats offer scientists a foothold in obscure regions of the sea.
- Hindu prayer service? There’s an app for that.
The combination of religion and hand-held technology isn't new, but its horizons may be widest in India. A new crop of start-ups has caught the attention of temples and techies alike.
- When the humanities meet big data
A "close reading" of canonical texts have long been a staple of the humanities. Now, technology is enabling a "distant reading" of everything else.