James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Amazon admits Alexa voice recordings are kept indefinitely
Users of Amazon.com Inc.’s voice assistant Alexa might have more concerns about their privacy after the firm this week admitted that voice data and transcripts are never deleted unless the customer does so — and even then, some data is never erased. The revelation came after U.S. Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, sent a ...
Facebook is cracking down on content containing dubious health claims and miracle cures
Facebook Inc. announced today that it will curb the spread of content on the platform that contains health-related information not been grounded in proper science. The move follows an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal today that revealed Facebook and YouTube were “flooded” with “scientifically dubious and potentially harmful information.” In a blog post ...
US military will equip soldiers in Afghanistan with tiny pocket drones
Some U.S. soldiers soon heading to Afghanistan will be equipped with a new pocket-sized toy, a surveillance drone called the Black Hornet Personal Reconnaissance System. On their deployment in Afghanistan, the 1st Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment will begin testing the drones so they can figure out how best they ...
Website that uses AI to undress women is down because it’s too popular
On Wednesday this week you could have gone to a website called Deepnude.com and looked under the clothes of a fully dressed woman. On Thursday the site was down. That website used artificial intelligence to give people a glimpse of what others might look like without any clothes. All visitors had to do was upload ...
Facebook is reviewing its ‘deep fake’ video policy
Deep fakes are a serious threat and something has to be done to protect people from them, Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday. Zuckerberg (pictured) said with artificial intelligence getting better, “we need to be very careful” in regards to these fake videos. He was speaking to a crowd on Wednesday at the ...
New bill would force big tech companies to show how much they make from user data
Senators Mark Warner and Josh Hawley are introducing a bill today that will force companies such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google LLC to reveal how much money they make from monetizing their customers’ data. As reported first Sunday evening by Axios, the senators, who have both been outspoken in the past about what ...
Facebook content moderators describe the total depravity of their jobs
Moderating content for Facebook Inc. by all accounts is an extremely stressful job, according to a number of people interviewed by The Verge. In a damning investigative report released Wednesday, it was revealed that some of the 800 moderators working at a company called Cognizant in Tampa, Florida, face relentless stress as they try to ...
Google will invest $1 billion in San Francisco Bay Area housing projects
Google LLC will invest $1 billion to build houses in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company announced Tuesday. The housing crisis and homelessness in the area has largely been blamed on the tech industry for how it has pushed up the price of housing by creating so many jobs in the area. According to the ...
The UK’s digital bank Monzo is coming to the US
The U.K.’s so-called “bank of the future,” Monzo, is launching stateside, the company announced Thursday. The bank has gained popularity in the U.K. over a short period of time. Since it launched in 2015, its customer base has grown to 2.2 million people. Unlike traditional banks, there are no brick-and-mortar outlets, so all the banking is ...
Ford to test next-generation autonomous cars in Detroit
Ford Motor Co. announced Wednesday that its next-generation self-driving cars will soon be rolling around the streets of Detroit and its Corktown neighborhood. Argo AI, Ford’s autonomous vehicle arm, said in a press release that Detroit will only see the new third-generation Ford Fusion Hybrid. Older models have already been tested in Pittsburgh, Palo Alto, ...