The demise and rebirth of the ethical engineer | TechCrunch

April 29, 2019April 28, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Whatever happened to the ethics of engineering? We’ve seen just one disastrous news story after another these past few years, almost all knowable and preventable. Planes falling out of the sky. Nuclear power plants melting down. Foreign powers engorging on user data. Environmental testing thrashed. Electrical grids burning states to the ground.

The patterns are not centered around discipline or nationality, nor do these events share an obvious social structure. Facebook machine learning programmers mostly don’t hang with German VW automotive engineers or Japanese nuclear plant designers. They weren’t taught at the same schools, nor share the same textbooks, nor read the same journals.

Will Artificial Intelligence Enhance or Hack Humanity? | WIRED

April 29, 2019April 28, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

THIS WEEK, I interviewed Yuval Noah Harari, the author of three best-selling books about the history and future of our species, and Fei-Fei Li, one of the pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence. The event was hosted by the Stanford Center for Ethics and Society, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and the Stanford Humanities Center. A transcript of the event follows, and a video is posted below.

Sprint, T-Mobile merger ‘unlikely’ to be approved by DOJ: report | Mashable

April 24, 2019April 21, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Things aren’t looking good for the big merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.

The Department of Justice antitrust enforcement has informed Sprint and T-Mobile that the merger is “unlikely” to receive approval, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking to sources familiar with the merger, the report states that the $26 billion deal is concerns from the Justice Department’s antitrust division over threats the merger poses to competition. Sprint and T-Mobile are the third and fourth biggest mobile carriers in the country.

Further complicating matters, several U.S. states are considering taking legal action against the two companies if the DOJ decides not to challenge the merger.

Slowing US growth could be good for investors | CNN

April 23, 2019April 21, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The first report card of the year for the American economy is due on Friday. Hold tight.

Investors will be watching closely after worries about a global and US economic slowdown weighed on their minds at the start of the year.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimates 2.8% real GDP growth in January through March, while analysts polled by Refinitiv forecast an average of 1.9%. A weaker than expected GDP reading could pull stocks and other assets lower.

Facebook uploaded millions of users’ contacts without their knowledge | Fast Company

April 19, 2019April 18, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Another day, another Facebook data scandal. This time the scandal involves Facebook uploading the complete address books of 1.5 million new users without their consent. Facebook said these new users’ contacts were “unintentionally uploaded” since May 2016, reports Business Insider.

Here’s why Facebook says this mistake happened. Prior to May 2016, Facebook offered an option for new users to verify their email account and upload all their contacts from that email account at the same time. The uploading of contacts was so Facebook could see who you knew and make friend recommendations based on your contacts.

The government is about to permanently bar the IRS from creating a free electronic filing system | TechCrunch

April 11, 2019April 10, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to pressure from tax preparation industry, Congress is getting ready to ban the Internal Revenue Service from ever building a free electronic tax filing system.

As ProPublica reports, the effort is a bipartisan one. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Massachusetts Democrat, Richard Neal, passed the Taxpayer First Act.

The bill would make changes to the IRS and is sponsored by Georgia Democratic Congressman John Lewis and Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

One of its stipulations would make it illegal for the IRS to create its own online system for tax filing. That’s right, members of Congress are prohibiting a branch of the federal government from providing a much-needed service that would make the lives of all of their constituents much easier.

A New Breed of ATM Hackers Gets in Through a Bank’s Network | WIRED

April 11, 2019April 10, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

OVER THE PAST few years, scammers have increasingly siphoned cash off of digital payment networks, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars so far. Not only is the problem hard to contain; new findings show that it’s evolving and maturing, with new types of ATM malware on the rise.

Researchers at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit in Singapore are presenting findings on Wednesday about a new wave of payment system scams. Beyond so-called jackpotting attacks, which cause individual ATMs to spit out money, hackers are manipulating ATM networks and the digital authentication checks in the machines to cash out fraudulent transfers they initiate around the globe.

The FDA Is Investigating a Possible Link Between E-cigarettes and Seizures | Live Science

April 8, 2019April 7, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating a possible link between e-cigarette use and seizures, the agency announced today (April 3).

The FDA said that, between 2010 and 2019, there were 35 reported cases of people who had seizures shortly after they used e-cigarettes. Most of these reports involved teenagers or young adults.

Mission Accomplished? Killing the Pixelbook Could Be Good News for Chromebooks | Digital Trends

April 1, 2019March 31, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The fancy Google Pixelbook painted a rosy picture for the future of the Chromebook when it launched. Yes, it was a bit too expensive given the limitations of Chrome OS, but the software has evolved quite a bit over the past couple of years. Now there was some premium hardware to match.

But if you believe the recent reporting around the matter, we may never see a true follow-up to the high-end Chromebook. Google has never been afraid to kill projects, and its Chrome OS hardware might be next. And that might not be as big a blow as you may think.