Business, Spoken

Latest Episodes:

Google Says It Wants Rules for the Use of AI—Kinda, Sorta Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Last April, Google cofounder Sergey Brin wrote to shareholders with a warning about the potential downsides of artificial intelligence. In June, Google CEO Sundar Pichai released a set of guiding principles for its AI projects after employee protests forced him to abandon a Pentagon contract creating algorithms to interpret drone footage.

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The World’s Fastest Supercomputer Breaks an AI Record Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Along America’s west coast, the world’s most valuable companies are racing to make artificial intelligence smarter. Google and Facebook have boasted of experiments using billions of photos and thousands of high-powered processors. Late last year, a project in eastern Tennessee quietly exceeded the scale of any corporate AI lab. It was run by the US government. The record-setting project involved the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Summit, at Oak Ridge National Lab.

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This Hearing May Decide the Future of Net Neutrality Feb 01, 2019

Show notes

Net neutrality advocates are heading to court Friday for what may be their best chance to restore federal regulations banning broadband providers from blocking, throttling, or otherwise discriminating against lawful content. The Federal Communications Commission passed robust net neutrality protections in 2015.

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US Ratchets Up the Pressure on Huawei With New Indictments Feb 01, 2019

Show notes

Embattled Chinese telecom giant Huawei has some new problems. The US Department of Justice Monday unsealed a 13-count indictment against Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou, alleging the company misled banking partners about violations of US sanctions against Iran. The charges include bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Meng, who is also the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada last month and is awaiting extradition to the US.

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Real Facebook Oversight Requires More Than a 40-Expert Board Jan 31, 2019

Show notes

When Facebook announced in November that it would launch an independent oversight board, questions arose about what that might look like and how it would work. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for one, compared the would-be governing body to the Supreme Court, in its potential capacity to review the biggest issues of the day and set a sort of Facebook case law. On Monday, Facebook released a draft charter answering questions about how such an institution might function.

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If Convicted, Huawei Faces Bigger Problems Than Fines Jan 30, 2019

Show notes

Chinese telecom giant Huawei could face millions in fines if convicted of all charges in two indictments unsealed by the US Department of Justice Monday. But the money is likely the least of Huawei’s worries. The first indictment accuses Huawei and its executives, including CFO Meng Wanzhou, of crimes including bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice related to alleged violations of sanctions forbidding the sale of US-made equipment to Iran.

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All This Newfound Cynicism Is Going to Hamper Big Tech Jan 30, 2019

Show notes

Earlier this month, a WIRED contributor managed to subvert all the warm, fuzzy feelings produced by the “10-year challenge” meme on social media by asking the question that has haunted free thinkers throughout history: Am I doing what I want to do, or what they want me to do? The challenge, which has flourished on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, seems like harmless stuff, offering a forum for regular folks and celebrities alike to use photos to boast about getting better with age (or in the case of Mariah Carey, who posted the same photo as “before” and...

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Family Trust Shows Silicon Valley’s Secret Obsessions Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

When Dave Eggers published The Circle in 2013, critics thought the novel’s hyperbolic message about an omnipotent tech company would open the world’s eyes to the harms of Silicon Valley’s growing power. Perhaps there’s as much to learn about tech culture from Family Trust, the debut novel from Kathy Wang, a former product manager for a data-storage company. Family Trust is also a zippy page-turner set in Silicon Valley, but Wang focuses on tech’s middle class.

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Alaska Schools Get Faster Internet—Partly Thanks to Global Warming Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

Before they got down to business for the day, students in Devin Tatro’s social studies class were offered a quiet moment of self-reflection: On this golden fall afternoon at Nome-Beltz Junior/Senior High School, were they feeling chipper, distressed, or somewhere in between? About 20 students gazed at their laptops, an online poll open on each screen.

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YouTube Will Crack Down on Toxic Videos, But It Won’t Be Easy Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

YouTube is trying to reduce the spread of toxic videos on the platform by limiting how often they appear in users' recommendations. The company announced the shift in a blog post on Friday, writing that it would begin cracking down on so-called "borderline content" that comes close to violating its community standards without quite crossing the line.

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