Business, Spoken

The pandemic has slashed demand for rides and boosted orders for UberEats. Neither segment is profitable. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Thousands of eateries are closing amid the pandemic. Delivery specialists are popping up, but some worry about a loss of culture and community. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Using open source software and less than $100, a researcher was able to create plausible images and audio of actor Tom Hanks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Republican Will Hurd and Democrat Robin Kelly want more Pentagon spending, a Cold War-style “hotline,” and a curb on chip exports to China. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Rashad Robinson, an organizer behind the Stop Hate for Profit boycott, says civil rights groups can’t be left to police the company by themselves. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The techie-turned-philanthropist on vaccines, Trump, and why social media is “a poisoned chalice.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The social media company could surely enforce its own rules on false and harmful posts—it just needs to cut into its massive profit margins. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Here's a look at how Mark Zuckerberg plotted the Instagram acquisition. Plus: Inside Amazon's plan to take down Diapers.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A big study by the US Census Bureau finds that only about 9 percent of firms employ tools like machine learning or voice recognition—for now. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Attackers increasingly try to confuse and bypass machine-learning systems. So the companies that deploy them are getting creative. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The former Google engineer, who pleaded guilty to stealing the company's self-driving car technology, says he'd be at heightened risk for Covid-19. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A proposal would require 60 percent of ride-hail miles to be in electric vehicles by 2030. And the companies are on board. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Many so-called “quantitative funds” that mine historical data to make trading decisions fared poorly in March, when stocks fell sharply amid coronavirus fears. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In a study, people responded to messages that resonated with them personally—up to a certain extent. The results could help shape responses to future pandemics. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On the heels of another profitable quarter, despite a coronavirus-induced shutdown of its California plant, the electric automaker announced its fourth factory. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Riders are skittish. Cleaning costs are soaring. Some, like the Bay Area's Caltrain system, face an existential crisis. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

An artificial intelligence system has outperformed physicians when detecting skin lesions. The results are changing how one school trains dermatologists. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Ethical Explorer Pack is designed to help Silicon Valley's rank and file—not just CEOs—steer products away from harmful directions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Skydio is best known for “selfie drones.” Now, it's seeking government contracts, as American officials shun the Chinese drone company. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A new paper argues that the computing demands of deep learning are so great that progress on tasks like translation and self-driving is likely to slow. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The state sued the ride-hail companies for misclassifying drivers as contractors, following a similar move by California officials. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

New research suggests that the tradeoffs for electric autonomous vehicles aren’t as painful as once thought, though early AVs might be gas hybrids. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Plus: A tough review of IBM’s PCjr, fresh questions on Covid-19, and government help for the self-sufficient. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The International Baccalaureate program canceled its high-stakes exam because of Covid-19. The formula it used to "predict" scores puzzles students and teachers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After the demise of Mixer, livestreamers are taking a closer look at what their platform partnerships should look like. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Nonprofits and advocacy groups signed on to an organization called Communities Against Rider Surveillance—without knowing that the ride-hail giant was involved. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Coronavirus restrictions make it harder and more expensive to shoot videos. So some companies are turning to synthetic media instead. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Making an autonomous vehicle is proving harder and costlier than many startups predicted. So they're teaming up with giants like Hyundai, Jaguar, and Ford. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Two studies reach very different conclusions about ride-hail earnings, as city officials consider setting a minimum wage. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Artificially intelligent camera systems look for defects and misplaced parts in many industries. The coronavirus pandemic makes them extra useful. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Divisions over technical standards and the role of China's Huawei are jeopardizing the rollout of superfast connections. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In just three years, Columbus managed to exceed its goal of more than 3,200 new BEVs and plug-in hybrids . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Founded by Instagram and finance alums, Karat wants to be the black card in every influencer’s wallet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Software company Acronis has been storing the data of the best and brightest teams. Now, it wants to use that to help them win games. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

To cut the carbon, programmers are cutting the code. Call it green programming. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

US carmakers fare well in JD Power's annual survey of new vehicle owners. Tesla gets poor grades on a small sample. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The search giant was the only Chinese member of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, a US-led effort to foster collaboration on ethical issues. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Companies rush to offer digital help for psychiatric disorders, after the FDA relaxes its rules amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Scrutiny of Apple’s App Store policies heats up as the company heads into its annual software conference. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM say they want federal rules around the technology. Critics of the proposal, sponsored by four Democrats, say it doesn't go far enough. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Beta Technologies' Alia, which debuted Friday, draws inspiration from the ultra-efficient Arctic tern. The craft may one day transport organs for transplants. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Software programs adopted during the Covid-19 crisis make it easier to complete forms and track requests. It saves work, but could cost jobs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Capacity limits and social distancing requirements prompt businesses to count how many people are inside—and force some to wait outside. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The winning detection algorithm from a Facebook-led challenge could spot about two-thirds of the altered videos, highlighting the need for improvement. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The research institute was created to steer AI away from harmful uses. Now it's competing with tech giants to sell a cloud computing service to businesses. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The social media company is testing warnings for users who try to share links to articles they haven't read. To do that, it has to know what you've read. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

To some in the tech industry, facial recognition increasingly looks like toxic technology. To law enforcement, it’s an almost irresistible crime-fighting tool.IBM is the latest company to declare facial recognition too troubling. CEO Arvind Krishna told members of Congress Monday that IBM would no longer offer the technology, citing the potential for racial profiling and human rights abuse. In a letter, Krishna also called for police reforms aimed at increasing scrutiny and accountability for misconduct.“We believe now is the time to begin a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies,” wrote Krishna, the first non-white CEO in the company’s 109-year history. IBM has been scaling back the technology’s use since last year.Krishna’s letter comes amid public protest over the killing of George Floyd by a police officer and police treatment of black communities. But IBM’s withdrawal may do little to stem the use of facial recognition, as a number of companies supply the technology to police and governments around the world.“While this is a great statement, it won’t really change police access to #FaceRecognition,” tweeted Clare Garvie, a researcher at Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology who studies police use of the technology. She noted that she had not so far come across any IBM contracts to supply facial recognition to police.According to a report from the Georgetown center, by 2016 photos of half of American adults were in a database that police could search using facial recognition. Adoption has likely swelled since then. A recent report from Grand View Research predicts the market will grow at an annual rate of 14.5 percent between 2020 and 2027, fueled by “rising adoption of the technology by the law enforcement sector.” The Department of Homeland Security said in February that it has used facial recognition on more than 43.7 million people in the US, primarily to check the identity of people boarding flights and cruises and crossing borders.Other tech companies are scaling back their use of the technology. Google in 2018 said it would not offer a facial recognition service; last year, CEO Sundar Pichai, indicated support for a temporary ban on the technology. Microsoft opposes such a ban, but said last year that it wouldn’t sell the tech to one California law enforcement agency because of ethical concerns. Axon, which makes police body cameras, said in June 2019 that it wouldn’t add facial recognition to them.But some players, including NEC, Idemia, and Thales, are quietly shipping the tech to US police departments. The startup Clearview offers a service to police that makes use of millions of faces scraped from the web.The technology apparently helped police hunt down a man accused of assaulting protesters in Montgomery County, Maryland.At the same time, public unease over the technology has prompted several cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, to ban use of facial recognition by government agencies.Officials in Boston are considering a ban; supporters point to the potential for police to surveil protesters. Amid the protests following Floyd’s killing “the conversation we’re having today about face surveillance is all the more urgent,” Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said at a press conference Tuesday.Timnit Gebru, a Google researcher who has played an important role in revealing the technology’s shortcomings, said during an event on Monday that facial recognition has been used to identify black protesters, and argued that it should be banned. “Even perfect facial recognition can be misused,” Gebru said. “I’m a black woman living in … Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Late last month, a mysterious new video app called Zynn began appearing at the top of app store charts, beating out household names like Instagram and YouTube. Zynn is a near identical copy of TikTok, and both apps are the product of Chinese tech giants. The biggest difference is that Zynn, in an effort to attract new users, is currently paying people in the United States and Canada small sums to watch videos and invite their friends to join. The tactic has seemed to work: Zynn has already been downloaded over 3 million times, according to the market research firm Sensor Tower, and ranked number one this week on Apple’s list of the most popular free apps.As of Tuesday, however, Zynn is no longer available for download from the Google Play Store, and a link that previously went to the app’s listing is now dead. It’s unclear why the app was removed, and Google did not immediately comment. A spokesperson for Apple said it was looking into Zynn but did not have any additional information as of publication. Twitter and Instagram accounts claiming to represent Zynn posted a statement Tuesday afternoon acknowledging the app had been removed, and said the company was “in communications with Google and working to fix this ASAP.”Meanwhile, Zynn is filled with videos that appear to be stolen from creators on other social media platforms, including TikTok celebrities with massive followings like Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae. Many of the clips are aggregated by accounts centered around a single theme, like “pranks.” Other videos appear on look-alike profiles impersonating individual creators. Four influencers who spoke to WIRED said videos they originally published to TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube were uploaded to Zynn without their consent, under accounts they didn’t open.“I didn’t create this,” Max Mazurek, a Polish dancer and model with almost 190,000 TikTok followers, said after WIRED showed him a Zynn profile using his name. The account has nearly 25,000 followers and featured many of the videos Mazurek had previously uploaded to TikTok and other platforms. “It’s not my account. I can’t download this app in Poland,” he said.The launch of a new social media platform often sets off a rush to grab famous or valuable usernames, and it’s not uncommon for scammers to impersonate celebrities on social media. Reposting other people’s content without credit has also long been an issue online. What’s strange about the Zynn accounts, however, is how many of the copied videos have time stamps that date back months before the app went public.Zynn officially launched in the Apple App Store on May 7, and it was first installed by Google Play users on May 5, according to Sensor Tower. Many of the impersonator accounts reviewed by WIRED, including the one under Mazurek’s name, uploaded their first posts on February 19. The significance of that date isn’t clear, and Zynn did not respond to a request for comment sent to an email address listed on its website. Its Community Guidelines state that it respects intellectual property rights and forbids users from posting “anything that you do not own or do not have permission from the owner to share.”“I feel that it’s honestly sad that they are stealing creators’ content and impersonating people,” said Chloe, a TikTok influencer with almost 18,000 followers. Until WIRED brought it to her attention, Chloe says she was unaware that a Zynn profile had been created using the same handle she uses on Instagram and TikTok, @ebonychlo. The account also began posting videos taken from her official social media profiles on February 19, months before Zynn became available for download. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Uber, Lyft, and others have agreed to pay people who've missed work because of the virus. Seattle is on the cusp of making it law in that city. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Employees who decline to work amid the pandemic could lose both their paychecks and their unemployment benefits. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices