Wow, 20 issues of WIP already! Without further ado, let’s take a look at what the new WIP has in store:
- Is Big Tech fusing with government surveillance?
- The Zuck is doing what he said he wouldn’t — merging WA, Instagram and Messenger
- “Smart coolers” are the new hip data grab
- Finland is teaching its population to harness the power of AI
- How China is collecting brain waves directly from workers’ heads
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Is Big Tech fusing with government surveillance?
Big Tech is already in a cozy relationship with the US government, writes Wired. They are big spenders on lobbying and the government in Washington is returning the favor by not putting any substantial legal hurdles in their way. And for several years now they have been also joining forces on extensive military and intelligence projects. Are we witnessing a gradual transformation to a softer, Western version of a Chinese-style surveillance apparatus? Read at your own peril.
The Zuck is doing what he said he wouldn’t — merging WhatsApp, Instagram and FB Messenger
One of the key promises Mark Zuckerberg made when Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp was that they would have plenty of autonomy. Five years on, in search of new revenue avenues, Facebook is doing exactly the opposite, reports The New York Times. By merging the underlying infrastructure of the three services, Zuckerberg plans to create new marketplaces for ads or paid services. The plan has privacy advocates on their feet and internal opposition inside Facebook is mounting as well. For an additional insight into why this would be a bad idea, also read this extensive and scalding review of Zuckerberg’s public letter to the Wall Street Journal.
“Smart coolers” are the new hip data grab
You’re thirsty, you walk into a store and grab yourself a drink from the fridge. Nothing special, right? Unless the fridge was scanning you and inferring demographic data about you, that is. Welcome to the new age.The Atlantic writes that Walgreens is rolling out its first series of “smart coolers” that will analyse your face and make inferences about age and gender every time you open the fridge door. This will give advertisers an unprecedented insight into how successful their campaigns are in the physical world and create a terrifyingly predictive feedback loop.
Finland is teaching its population to harness the power of AI
“We’ll never have so much money that we will be the leader of artificial intelligence. But how we use it — that’s something different,” Mika Lintilä, Finland’s economy minister, told Politico. The country is conducting a grand experiment with AI. It wants to teach 1 percent of the population the basic concepts at the root of AI and gradually build on the number over the coming few years. This way, it wants to prepare the Finnish people for the grand technological shift ahead.
How China is collecting brain waves directly from workers’ heads
On the surface the workers in Hangzhou Zhongheng Electric are just regular workers, reports South China Morning Post. What sets them apart is that all of them are wearing caps that can monitor brainwaves and send data about emotional states such as depression, anxiety, or rage. Sponsored by the state, the program is supposed to increase overall efficiency by manipulating the frequency and length of break times to reduce mental stress in companies. Sure, but it isn’t hard to imagine the use quickly becoming nefarious, either.
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