There are loads of things that are going on with technology. This is a run-through of some news of what I've looked at - not everything in detail, but they do span the range of issues I look at - how digital technology X geopolitics X regulation X ethics X climate.
Old Post - algorithmically-generated advice makes to top of Hacker News.
Service Revolution - intelligent and service robots.
Was this an act of war? Hackers attempted to poison a water supply in a small town in Florida.
Semiconductors X Geopolitics and " how Chipmakers will fare better in crisis. - both from the Exponential View newsletter from Azeem Azhar.
AI X Bias
Reading about chips shortage and about semiconductor biz cycles . How Ford had to cut production of their vehicles due to the chip supply disruption. Reading about how automakers are actually dependent on chips, and how there's a chip shortage is affecting automobile production.
Clearview AI - a company in the area of facial recognition - is labeled as illegal in Canada. and how facial recognition tech is a mess.
Tech Review folks digging into the problematic history of facial recognition datasets:
Google and ethics - an increasingly difficult fit.
A commentary from AEON (good essays!) about the metaphysical aspects of machine intelligence.
A commentary from Noema Magazine about AI and thinking.
Tech Review has a piece on the use of algos for hiring. - (subscribers only)
China tech is also facing more scrutiny on facial recognition tech.
from Jeff Ding's ChinAI newsletter.
Regulation and Tech
Antitrust and power structures are becoming the subjects of legislation and crackdowns - not just in the US, with various levels of conflicts, but also in China as well - perhaps more over potential political control.
There's Facebook fighting with Apple over privacy implementation.
On the other hand, Google is adapting to these changes.
An overview of the antitrust issues the large tech companies have in the US.
On the other hand, the Chinese party-state is going down hard on their own champions as well.
Climate X AI
AI training still takes much energy.
yet also can be important for sustainable development.
Some Odds and Ends
An explainer of the digital yuan.
A practicable quantum computer is important for various reasons - not just for cryptography, but also in terms of how people might engineer and design better materials for all the problems we need. The podcast episode mentioned how it would be cool to be able to look at nitrogenase - the enzyme that locks in nitrogen from the atmosphere - any thermodynamic improvement over the Haber-Bosch process would be BIG for fertilizers and ammonia, and indirectly for the hydrogen economy.