Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Jennifer Sherlock went out with a few men she met through dating apps. The dates were “weird,” she said, and not just because they were masked, socially distanced and outdoors. One one occasion, a date remained masked while they were out for a stroll, but soon after invited her back […]
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If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever. That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots […]
Belgian digital artist called Dries Depoorter launched earlier this month an AI bot called “The Flemish Scrollers” that automatically catches, and tags members of the Federal Parliament glued to their phones during parliamentary proceedings. Using artificial intelligence and facial recognition, the software calculates how long the politician spends on their phone, all while broadcasting the session and results on YouTube. Those figures are automatically […]
When a religious publication used smartphone app data to deduce the sexual orientation of a high-ranking Roman Catholic official, it exposed a problem that goes far beyond a debate over church doctrine and priestly celibacy. With few U.S. restrictions on what companies can do with the vast amount of data they collect from web page […]
U.S. based- video game company Activision Blizzard was sued on Tuesday over a culture of constant sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. The lawsuit filed by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against the company was a result of a two-year investigation that revealed top executives were aware and/or involved of unequal pay, promoting men over women, and widespread sexual harassment. The complaint highlights those male employees of the gaming company discuss sexual encounters […]
Tencent, the Chinese tech-company labeled as the biggest around the globe, has officially launched facial recognition technology that will be utilized to scan many Chinese kids’ faces every single night. The system will operate for the purpose of catching minors breaking the gaming curfew set by the Chinese government. This may seem like one intense episode of […]
The European Union handed down $1 billion in fines to major German car manufacturers Thursday, saying they colluded to limit the development and rollout of car emission-control systems. Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen along with its Audi and Porsche divisions avoided competing on technology to restrict pollution from gasoline and diesel passenger cars, the EU’s executive […]
Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak voiced his support towards the right to repair movement amid battle over whether users should be able to fix their own devices. Existing right-to-repair rules in Europe and the U.S. are limited to appliances and vehicles, respectively. Woznaik’s statement came through a Cameo video, a platform where people can purchase personalized videos from celebrities, in response to a question posed […]
e-Commerce giant Amazon and popular video-sharing platform TikTok are looking to bolster their position regarding online child safety, as the pair look to kickoff separate measures for a more child-friendly. As such, Amazon announced on Wednesday the launch of a kid-friendly version of it’s Amazon Echo Dot, that will be available for purchase in the […]
Inmates at an Oklahoma prison began receiving special computer tablets this week, as part of a Department of Corrections plan to provide secure tablets to everyone incarcerated in state prisons. The devices, specially designed by prisons communications company Securus Technologies, will include free content such as prison policies, access to a law library, some books […]