Worldcrunch
Technology itself is neither plague nor panacea for our sustainable, inclusive food future. It is always humans who choose which innovations to pursue, and how to use them. The revolution of digital technology presents this challenge in new and old ways, and our choices must be guided by clear morals that view food production and […]
Even in its more profitable heyday, the ad-driven media model had its fundamental flaws.
PARIS — It’s been a tumultuous few months for so-called “surveillance tech.” Most recently, following pushback from Black Lives Matter activists, Amazon has suspended police use of its facial recognition software for one year. IBM followed suit, announcing it will stop offering its similar software for “mass surveillance or racial profiling.” The moves from the […]
Welcome to Monday, where two Latin American countries await the results of key elections, a deadly train collision rocks Pakistan, and Turkey faces a worrying — not to say pretty yucky — sea of snot. We also look at some of the most creative vaccine incentives around the world. (Spoiler alert: They involve free food. […]
Two projects with billionaire Elon Musk’s name on it help highlight that the cause of saving the planet is a messy affair.
Allowing Beijing to have a hand in the new, faster mobile network would entail significant risks. But in Germany, debate about 5G is also a question of who you like more: China or the U.S.
With automated electronic surveillance systems, suspicion does not precede data collection but is generated by the analysis of the data itself.
Back in 1965, the Italian office machine company launched the revolutionary P101, used by NASA and later copied by U.S. rivals.
Personal privacy seems to be fleeting in a world where technology is constantly advancing — and it’s no accident: Around the globe, authorities are creating new ways to collect information about their citizens, be it in the streets or in supermarkets. Identity verification is a growing business, and the market is expected to grow from […]
-OpEd- PARIS — We live in a society that changes rapidly, and we wish for schools that reassure us. Schools that are forward-looking, perhaps. Even our schools in the Third Republic that we refer to so often were anything but retrograde. On the contrary! The school believed in the ability of its Black Hussars — […]
Orange-clad couriers working for the delivery firm Rappi are ubiquitous in Bogota. They’re also poorly paid, unorganized and in the way
Part of our fear around AI comes from its misleading moniker. It’s a momentous innovation, sure. But it isn’t really intelligent at all.
Robotization, AI and other technological advances will change the nature of work in the coming decades. How will it play out in poorer parts of the world?
A programmer in Turin decided to enter into a digitally-enhanced universe of his own creation — for an entire month — and lived to tell to the tale.
Augmented reality applications are starting to recreate the physical experience of trying on clothes and accessories, and could either revive or help destroy high-street shopping.
There’s simply no way for Mark Zuckerberg to fix the fake news and data abuse problems without destroying his social network’s business model.
-Analysis- The term “techlash” has been around for awhile, but get ready to see and hear it more and more. The company that stands at the center of this “technology backlash” is no doubt Facebook, with the world’s largest social network experiencing its worst week in memory amid snowballing revelations around its relationship with Cambridge […]
SEATTLE — Strolling through the bustling construction zone of Amazon’s urban campus in Seattle, you instantly recognize the charm offensive the company has aimed at its hometown. “Banistas’ at two outdoor stands offer bananas to employees and passers-by — a visual cue to Amazon’s smiley logo. Most American cities would do back flips to have a jobs juggernaut like Amazon.com Inc. in their midst. After all, the company will soon fill more than 10 million square feet of office space in a place where it now employs more than 30,000 people. But Seattle is not like other places. Locals resent […]
NANTES — In contemporary art, digital data is as much a medium as paint these days. One of the best works showcased during Scopitone, a festival centered on all things digital in the French city of Nantes, used scientific data to reflect how stars are born. An audio, tactile and visual work, called Unfold, is […]
SAN FRANCISCO — A billboard for a new housing complex being built in San Francisco caught people’s attention last spring. Its sales-pitch slogan? “From the low 1,000,000s.” Some may have chuckled at the absurdity, but the price of the new units reflects the current reality of the market. The median price of a house in […]
LIMA — Sometimes it seems the popular smartphone gaming app Pokémon Go knows no bounds. But Lima-based daily El Comercio reports that the capital’s seafront district of La Punta recently banned the game in most areas, restricting players to a limited zone. The district council moved ahead with the ban this week after receiving numerous […]
JAKARTA — A deal between Indonesia’s leading lender and an Uber-like moto-taxi application is the latest in a string of partnerhips that are making Indonesia a veritable hotspot for startup ventures in Asia. The initiative, between Bank Mandiri and the Jakarta-based company Go-Jek, will allow customers to store credit on the app by handling payments […]
Science has determined a variety of actions you can take aimed at keeping people cancer-free: diet, avoiding sun exposure, exercise, et al. Now your smart phone can help.
They call themselves the “Barbarians,” ready to challenge both the status quo in France and the prevailing ethos of U.S. startups obsessed with power and money.
TEL AVIV — Frida Issa knew from the age of 11 that she’d one day work in the world of computers. But it was with her first job at a Tel Aviv startup that she first nurtured ambitions to do something on her own — and something built for the future. “We’re not into building […]