algorithms: ai, ar, vr, crypto
Uber And Lyft Drivers Are Being Carjacked at Alarming Rates
The Markup confirmed 124 carjackings and attempted carjackings of ride-hail drivers across the country. Drivers say the companies are doing little to help
Source: Uber And Lyft Drivers Are Being Carjacked at Alarming Rates
Who Writes the Rules of a Blockchain?
Decentralized systems rely on decentralized governance. Enter the “governance token.”
Want to go viral? Influencers won’t be much help if you’re trying to spread a complex idea
Research from the University of Pennsylvania finds that new and provocative ideas emerge at the edge of networks, from people with fewer contacts and little obvious pull. Marketing and public relations gospel has long banked on the idea that simply reaching the well-connected people at the centers of social networks will create success.
Source: Want to go viral? Influencers won’t be much help if you’re trying to spread a complex idea
A Framework for the Metaverse — Matthew Ball
We need to think of the Metaverse as a sort of successor state to the mobile internet. And while consumers will have core devices and platforms through which they interact with the Metaverse, the Metaverse depends on so much more. There’s a reason we don’t say Facebook or Google is an internet. They are destinations and ecosystems on or in the internet, each accessible via a browser or smartphone that can also access the vast rest of the internet. Similarly, Fortnite and Roblox feel like the Metaverse because they embody so many technologies and trends into a single experience that, like the iPhone, is tangible and feels different from everything that came before. But they do not constitute the Metaverse.
An Autonomous Drone Just Beat a Professional Racing Pilot for the First Time
Unlike auto racing, in drone racing the pilots aren’t subjected to debilitating G-forces, which means the races can take place at impossibly fast speeds . So fast, in fact, that autonomous drones have always lagged behind those piloted by humans who benefit from split-second reflexes.
Source: An Autonomous Drone Just Beat a Professional Racing Pilot for the First Time
Watson as a Warning: Current Limits and Promise of AI
IBM has created an excellent narrow AI solution in Watson, but IBM assumed it had a general AI – an AI that could resolve any problem. General AI only exists in science fiction, and is unlikely to exist in our world any time in the near future.
Source: Watson as a Warning: Current Limits and Promise of AI
Facebook advertisers are panicking after iOS cuts off key tracking data
Enlarge Facebook’s ability to track users and show them certain ads appears to be tanking thanks to Apple’s “ask not to track” feature, according to some advertisers. Apple rolled out the privacy prompt in late April with iOS 14.5. Since then, nearly half of all iOS devices worldwide have at least version 14.5 installed, according to Statcounter , and a vast majority of these devices’ users have chosen to deny Facebook and other apps the ability to track them.
Source: Facebook advertisers are panicking after iOS cuts off key tracking data
What Will Be the Language of Our Digital Future?
Most of the tech that we encounter is built with an English-speaking user in mind. After all, English is used throughout the world, with more than a billion people speaking it as a second language. Indeed, most of us who speak English also speak another language, often switching to English only in specific formal contexts or when consuming the cultural products of the current global hegemon, the United States. The platforms that we rely on to remain connected in this digital age are not ready for our multilingual truths: We live in numerous languages, and constraining our ability to communicate in them effectively limits our ability to participate fully in our digital future.
How Warner Bros. is using ‘Space Jam’ to get into the NFT business
Ever since the NFT phenomenon took off several months ago, it’s been all about exclusivity and the value that exclusivity drives—i.e., a lot of money. Digital artists like Beeple have auctioned off NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, of their artwork for tens of millions of dollars at auction houses like Christie’s.
Source: How Warner Bros. is using ‘Space Jam’ to get into the NFT business
Beyond Silicon Valley
The six cities building the future of the global tech industry. Each has its own story and a set of unique factors behind its rise. What they all do carry is a measure of the Silicon Valley myth: The idea that, if you want to make it in tech, you need to be there.
Source: Beyond Silicon Valley
From Macy’s to Ace Hardware, facial recognition is already everywhere
Rite Aid had deployed facial recognition in at least 200 stores over eight years, before ditching the technology last year. Facial recognition is popping up at our favorite stores, but customers are largely unaware.
Source: From Macy’s to Ace Hardware, facial recognition is already everywhere
See also: Black teen misidentified by facial recognition sparks fears of machine-driven segregation
‘Welcome to the Mesh, Brother’: Guerrilla Wi-Fi Comes to New York
NYC Mesh, a band of a few dozen tech volunteers, takes on Verizon and the big “incumbent providers,” with the promise of inexpensive community internet.
Source: ‘Welcome to the Mesh, Brother’: Guerrilla Wi-Fi Comes to New York
The Computer Scientist Training AI to Think With Analogies
Melanie Mitchell has worked on digital minds for decades. She says they’ll never truly be like ours until they can make analogies.
Source: The Computer Scientist Training AI to Think With Analogies | Quanta Magazine
Inside the Industry That Unmasks People at Scale
Tech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used to follow smartphone users through apps are anonymous or at least pseudonymous, not directly identifying the person using the phone. But what they don’t mention is that an entire overlooked industry exists to purposefully and explicitly shatter that anonymity.
Source: Inside the Industry That Unmasks People at Scale
See also: ‘Chilling Effect’: Reporter Says Police Are Using This Israeli Tech to Hack Journalists’ Phones
Remote workers are moving out of big cities — but not to the Midwest
These workers will have major effects on cities and the areas outside them. Remote work is doing a lot of labor.
Source: Remote workers are moving out of big cities — but not to the Midwest
See also: Younger employees fear being left behind by remote work
The Data Economy Is a Barter Economy
What is the best way for businesses to use data in a way that feels ethical to consumers and does not spark a regulatory backlash? This question is sparking endless angst in today’s C-suites. All manner of policy responses have been suggested, but one simple and important place to start is to change the way we talk about it. Borrowing an idea from cultural anthropology and describing this exchange as “barter” will clarify the minds of regulators and investors to focus on the scale and nature of long-concealed exchanges that now lie at the heart of the tech world, and how to create a more acceptable framework that protects consumers
The anatomy of a ransomware attack
Inside the hacks that lock down computer systems and damage businesses.
Hello, Content Creators. Silicon Valley’s Investors Want to Meet You.
The online influencer culture is starting to draw serious interest from big venture capital firms. But the real money could be in digital tools, not the personalities.
Source: Hello, Content Creators. Silicon Valley’s Investors Want to Meet You.
What Is the Metaverse?
Crypto people say they’re building it. Gamers might already be living in it. The art world is cashing in on it. Web veterans are trying to save it. But what is it?
Source: What Is the Metaverse?
Bitcoin miners break new ground in Texas, a state hailed as the new cryptocurrency capital
Chad Harris, the CEO of Whinstone Inc., the operator of the largest crypto “mine” in North America, remembers one of the last times Texas’s electric power problem became his electric power problem.
Source: Bitcoin miners break new ground in Texas, a state hailed as the new cryptocurrency capital