When physicists first thought up quantum computers in the 1980s, they sounded like a nice theoretical idea, but one probably destined to remain on paper. Then in 1995, 25 years ago this month, applied mathematician Peter Shor published a paper1 that changed that perception. Read full Article
Thirty years ago, Hinton’s belief in neural networks was contrarian. Now it’s hard to find anyone who disagrees, he says. The modern AI revolution began during an obscure research contest. Read full Article
The risks of algorithmic discrimination and bias have received much attention and scrutiny, and rightly so. Yet there is another more insidious side-effect of our increasingly AI-powered society — the systematic inequality created by the changing nature of work itself. Read full Article
Steven L. Johnson, Brent Kitchens and Peter Gray are information technology professors at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce. Read full Article
A new survey finds that responses to COVID-19 have speeded the adoption of digital technologies by several years—and that many of these changes could be here for the long haul. Read full Article
The COVID-19 crisis is going to accelerate a number of changes and transformations in human society. Notably, the pandemic is expected to significantly accelerate the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Read full Article
When COVID hit the world a few months ago, an extended period of gloom seemed all but inevitable. Yet many companies in the data ecosystem have not just survived but in fact thrived. Read full Article
Autonomous machines capable of deadly force are increasingly prevalent in modern warfare, despite numerous ethical concerns. Is there anything we can do to halt the advance of the killer robots? The video is stark. Two menacing men stand next to a white van in a field, holding remote controls. Read full Article
Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn’t exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world. It’s a great story — but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets. Read full Article
As of June 30, a record 2.7 billion people — exactly a third of the population of Earth — enter the social network at least once a month. Some 1.8 billion of us, another record, use Facebook at least once a day. Just counting these devotees, Facebook has a population larger than the U.S. Read full Article
Our increasing fascination with the hyper-performance of machines, smart software and AI is casting a shadow over our elusive and ephemeral ‘human-only skills.’ As our working environments shift dramatically it’s time for a change in our performance metrics, too. Read full Article
Through history there have been many wonderful visionaries, seers, futurists and writers who have presented us with glimpses of the future. Read full Article
Jeff Orlowski, director of the new documentary on Netflix about how tech giants affect everything from mental health to politics, says, “only years later did we realize there are huge, huge consequences” There’s an oft-quoted saying about tech companies: If you aren’t paying for the product, you Read full Article
You’ve probably heard at least two things about the gig economy. First, that it’s big. In 2019, roughly one-in-10 workers in the UK earns a living in the gig economy. In the US, the equivalent figure is an estimated 8%. Earlier this year, there was a pan-African survey that showed that 1. Read full Article
What does the future look like for humans and machines? Elon Musk would argue that it involves wiring brains directly up to computers – but neuroscientists tell Inverse that’s easier said than done. Read full Article
Looking at Big Tech as the next Big Oil. On Wednesday, the US House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from four titans of tech: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple’s Tim Cook. Read full Article
We worship efficiency. Use less to get more. Same-day delivery. Multitask; text on one device while emailing on a second, and perhaps conversing on a third. Efficiency is seen as good. Inefficiency as wasteful. There’s a sound rationale for thinking this way. Read full Article
Two years earlier, in Hamburg, Johanna’s husband Heinrich Floris had been discovered dead in the canal behind their family compound. It is possible that he slipped and fell, but Arthur suspected that his father jumped out of the warehouse loft into the icy waters below. Johanna did not disagree. Read full Article
