James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
At Donald Trump’s meeting with top tech execs, a conciliatory tone
Despite widespread disdain among many technology executives for Donald Trump before he was elected president, their meeting Wednesday at Trump Tower in New York appeared to produce no fireworks. Indeed, by all reports, both Trump and the executives struck a conciliatory tone, one at odds with some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and rank-and-file at Valley companies who ...
Google no longer developing a driverless car of its own: Welcome to Waymo
Google Inc.’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., has turned heel regarding its plan to develop its own car without a steering wheel or pedals and instead created a new independent unit to make self-driving car technology available to automakers. At a press event in San Francisco today where Waymo, as the new unit is called, was unveiled, Alphabet said ...
Uber is spying on celebrities, politicians, ex-girlfriends, says fired security employee
A former forensic investigator for Uber Technologies Inc. says that user information at Uber has been used by employees to track celebrities, monitor the movement of high-profile politicians and even keep track of employees’ lovers and spouses. The former investigator, 45-year-old Ward Spangenberg, says he suffered age discrimination at Uber but was also pushed out ...
Top players in tech meet with President-elect Donald Trump today
Donald Trump will hold a roundtable meeting Wednesday at his Trump Tower in New York that will include many of the biggest names in tech – some of whom supported his rival Hillary Clinton. According to a report in USA Today, the arrangement, which surely will be awkward given the varying political views of the ...
A software bot is coming for your job. What will you do now?
One of the overriding concerns about technology today is that artificial intelligence and robots will soon take many of our jobs away. Even technology leaders are stoking those fears. Only a few weeks ago, Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk talked about the end of the workforce as we know it, alluding that a Marxian ...
With deal done, Microsoft wants LinkedIn to empower the public
Microsoft Corp. has finally closed the deal on its LinkedIn Corp. acquisition, using the occasion to announce lofty intentions to empower a disaffected public. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said he was excited and enthusiastic about the $26 billion deal finally coming together after a series of regulatory clearances, and in a blog post he outlined ...
Is Donald Trump the best thing ever to happen to Twitter?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s use of Twitter Inc.’s service has prompted some changes on the platform and responses from the site itself this week. Most recently, Trump’s diplomatic acumen came into question regarding tweets relating to China and Taiwan. Trump’s phone call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and subsequent tweets about the call caused ripples ...
Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Facebook join to battle extremist content
Tech giants Facebook Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc. have pledged to get tough on terrorism in a new effort to cull extremist content from their networks. The idea is that the four companies will create a shared database of “unique digital footprints” that will be known as “hashes.” Hashes refer to content ...
Report: Visa quotas from Brexit could harm UK’s tech dominance in Europe
The U.K. risks losing its position as the leader of tech in the region if visa quotas for skilled tech staff are not met as a result of the Brexit plan, according to analysis from Balderton Capital, a venture capital investor in Europe. According to the report, the U.K. is still the most desirable destination ...
Reddit CEO admits meddling with critical posts, heightening online speech issues
Reddit cofounder and Chief Executive Steve Huffman has admitted meddling with user comments, inflaming recent controversies concerning the user-generated news link site. “I abused my power to give the bullies a hard time,” Steve Huffman told the Washington Post. In light of the recent furor over what has been perceived as the promulgation of “fake news” ...