Business, Spoken

Spammers, hackers, political propagandists, and other nefarious users have always tried to game the systems that social media sites put in place to protect their platforms. It’s a never-ending battle; as companies like Twitter and Facebook become more sophisticated, so do the trolls. And so last week, after Facebook shared new details about a tool it built to analyze text found in images like memes, some people began brainstorming how to thwart it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Somewhere around 1997 I was filling my car with gas, and I spotted a web address on a small orange sticker on the pump. It was an ad of some kind; I don’t remember what for, but I do remember having a realization: The mass adoption of the internet was real. Against all odds, a disturbance in the force had unleashed an entirely new culture outside the established channels, and now commerce was flocking to where the action was. But the main event had hardly started. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On a clear, warm night earlier this year, several dozen University of California, Berkeley students folded themselves into gray chairs for a three-hour class on how to think like blockchain entrepreneurs. The evening’s challenge, presented by Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett, was to brainstorm how blockchain technology might be used to alleviate the city’s growing homeless problem. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The European Parliament passed sweeping copyright legislation Wednesday that, much like its privacy regulations, could have impact far beyond Europe. Critics argue the most controversial part of the proposal will effectively force all but the smallest website operators to adopt "upload filters" similar to those used by YouTube, and apply them to all types of content, to stop users from uploading copyrighted works. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Executives at tech companies say gender diversity matters. They opine that there aren’t enough women in tech, and express outrage and frustration that just 11 percent of senior tech leaders are women. But in reality they spend very little of their philanthropic dollars attempting to close this gender and race gap, according to new research released today by Melinda Gates in partnership with McKinsey & Company. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Though only a third of Instagram users say they get news from the app, 60 percent of those who do are nonwhite, whereas on Twitter, 60 percent of news consumers are white. Of people who rely on Snapchat for news, 63 percent are women. Yet 72 percent of people who tap Reddit for news are men. These are some of the takeaways from a Pew Research survey published this week, looking at the news consumption habits of social media users in the US. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Teenage use of e-cigarettes has reached “an epidemic proportion,” the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, announcing that Juul and four other e-cigarette manufacturers have 60 days to “convincingly address” use by minors or the agency could take their products off the market. In a briefing, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the companies failed to consider the public health impact of their products or their legal obligations. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For as long as WeWork has been selling memberships to its coworking spaces, investors and analysts have quibbled about whether it’s an overvalued real estate company or a misunderstood tech company. Chalk one up for tech: The coworking outfit is about to start selling its first software product. Today, WeWork announced it will acquire a Salt Lake City–based office management startup called Teem. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It may be a long time before you can own a truly self-driving car. But chipmakers are placing bets that you will. On Tuesday, the Japanese chipmaker Renesas, the second-largest provider of semiconductors for the automotive industry, said it will acquire San Jose based chipmaker Integrated Device Technology (IDT) for $6.7 billion, in part to prepare for autonomous vehicles. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When you think about 3-D printing, chances are you think of little plastic doodads created by desktop devices like those made by MakerBot. Computing and printer giant HP wants you to think about metal. Today the company announced the Metal Jet printer, an industrial-scale 3-D printer that builds items not of plastic but of steel. 3-D plastic printing is widely used for custom items such as prosthetics and hearing aids, and by product designers for prototyping. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

I knew from the day I started at Facebook that I would have to make a choice. I was five months pregnant and raising two young boys. Balancing motherhood with my work as a data scientistwas exciting and strenuous. It meant working during my commute, coming home to feed the kids and put them to sleep, then falling into bed. I worked until the day my daughter was born. Then I had to make the hardest decision of my life. I had to choose between my dream job and my baby girl. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In 2012, artificial intelligence researchers revealed a big improvement in computers’ ability to recognize images by feeding a neural network millions of labeled images from a database called ImageNet. It ushered in an exciting phase for computer vision, as it became clear that a model trained using ImageNet could help tackle all sorts of image-recognition problems. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Since the early 2000s, Amazon has quietly received more than $1.5 billion in government subsidies, in exchange for bringing new jobs to cities and states across the country. At the same time, low-wage employees at Amazon's grueling warehouses have sometimes had to rely on a different kind of government benefit, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, to make ends meet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Dara Khosrowshahi stands in the wings of an airy, modern corporate event space in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. It’s the first anniversary of his taking the CEO reigns at the iconic ride-sharing company, and he’s celebrating like a Silicon Valley suit--with a set of product announcements. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Amazon briefly touched $1 trillion in market capitalization Tuesday, barely a month after Apple topped $1 trillion. The companies share the letter A and 12 zeros, but the similarity largely ends there. WIRED Opinion About Zachary Karabell is a WIRED contributor and president of River Twice Research. Apple is a cash machine, with a small suite of high-end products and an uncertain post-iPhone future. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s too loud for me to hear inside the Cupertino coffee bar, but Achin Bhowmik says it doesn’t bother him. He’s got a superpower, he says. If I look closely—very closely—I can see the tiny plastic tubes reaching from his ear canals to small devices hidden behind his ears. The hearing aids are running machine-learning algorithms that continuously monitor his “acoustic environment” to help him hear what he wants to hear. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Consumer debt, credit card debt, and personal loan debt are at all-time highs. Meanwhile, investors who purchase debt for cents on the dollar and then try to collect the whole amount, and the collection agencies they hire, are getting increasingly aggressive. One in four consumers contacted by debt collectors feels threatened, and most consumers say the calls persist even after requests to stop, according to a 2017 study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

An objectively good thing happened in big tech Thursday: Microsoft said it will require companies that supply it with subcontractors—think cafeteria and custodial staff—to give those workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave. In doing so, Microsoft is once again taking the lead in ensuring contractors get benefits that other big companies reserve for full-time employees. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

IPU n. Short for intelligence processing unit, a new kind of computer chip optimized for AI. Way back in the early 2000s, when the first Xbox came out, researchers discovered they could hack video­game consoles for scientific uses. It seems the devices’ graphic processing units, or GPUs, designed to render flying gore and mayhem, also ran physics simulations faster than the CPUs in ordinary computers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Online advertising can be more than just annoying. It can also violate users’ privacy through tracking technology meant to help target ads and measure response. Users have long had a range of tools at their disposal to combat aggressive or nosey ad-tech. But these tools often require users to install new software, or poke around in their browser's settings. Today, Mozilla, the company behind the popular Firefox browser, said it will take more aggressive measures to protect users' privacy. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Most people on Earth can speak two or more languages, but voice-operated virtual assistants have always forced them to pick and use just one—at least until today. Google Assistant is now the first multilingual virtual assistant. Users can specify that they want listening done in two languages in the app’s settings on their phone or Google Home smart speaker. Then, a person can call out requests or commands in either language. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In July, Danielle Bosnick joined a nationwide movement against sexual violence on school campuses when she made a Facebook page for her daughter. “Justice for Francesca,” is meant to raise awareness about the 15-year-old, who was sexually assaulted last summer by a classmate she didn’t know. For weeks, Bosnick used the page to share articles about Francesca’s case and those of other students in similar circumstances. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With all the headlines about the lack of broadband in rural America, you’d be forgiven for thinking that all small towns are stuck in the dark age of dial-up internet. WIRED OPINION ABOUT Matt Dunne (@MattDunneVT), a former Vermont state senator and previously head of community affairs at Google, is founder of the Center on Rural Innovation. The untold story of rural broadband is that over the past seven years, independent broadband networks have proliferated. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the difficult days after hurricanes Irma and Maria, it was hard for many Puerto Ricans to think about the future amid the rubble and ruin left by these devastating storms. Now, as we approach the first anniversary of those storms and enter a new chapter of the rebuilding process, I am optimistic and excited about what the future holds. WIRED OPINION ABOUT Ricardo Rosselló (RicardoRossello) is the governor of Puerto Rico. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

I am transfixed by the plummeting signal strength on my phone as employees of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase close the flap of the stuffy silver tent I’m standing inside. The fabric walls enclose a cubic space about 8 feet across and contain mesh that functions as a Faraday cage that blocks electromagnetic radiation. By the time the door is sealed, my connection to the outside world has drained away to nothing. Now the ceremony can begin. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A full hour before the sun rose in Washington, DC, Tuesday, President Donald Trump fired off a pair of tweets claiming that Google had “rigged” search results against conservatives. Like so many Trump grievances, the argument seems steeped less in fact than a roiling stew of personal animus. But in Google News, the latest target of his ire, Trump may have found the perfect target. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As the US-China trade war rages on, two Chinese tech companies are facing a new headache: Australia’s government has joined the US in effectively banning its wireless carriers from buying gear for 5G networks from Huawei and ZTE. The decision is more than spillover from the US-China dispute. It's part of a bigger controversy over the role of China in Australia, which is in the midst of political turmoil. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In January 2016, technology incubator Y Combinator announced plans to fund a long-term study on giving people a guaranteed monthly income, in part to offset fears about jobs being destroyed by automation. “I’m fairly confident that at some point in the future, as technology continues to eliminate traditional jobs and massive new wealth gets created, we’re going to see some version of this at a national scale. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Online commerce has made it easier than ever to shop, right? Maybe too easy. A recent study by comparison-shopping site Finder revealed that more than 88 percent of Americans admitted to spontaneous impulse buying online, blowing an average of $81.75 each time we lose control. Clothes, videogames, concert tickets. One in five of us succumb weekly. Millennials do it the most. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For anyone watching the net neutrality debate unfold, it feels like a never-ending, ever-evolving complicated saga of a complicated topic. So, here’s one more tick to track in the timeline: earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of the Inspector General released a report saying the agency misled Congress and the public and last year when it claimed its site was the victim of a cyberattack in 2017. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

One way to measure progress in artificial intelligence is to chart victories by algorithms over champions of increasingly challenging games---checkers, chess, and, in 2016, Go. On Wednesday, five bots sought to extend AI’s mastery to e-sports, in the fantasy battle game Dota 2. They failed, as a team of pro gamers from Brazil called paiN defended humanity’s honor---for now. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Say you're scrolling through Facebook, see an article that seems a little hinky, and flag it. If Facebook's algorithm has decided you're trustworthy, the report then might go to the social network's third-party fact checkers. If they mark the story as false, Facebook will make sure fewer people see it in the News Feed. For those who see it anyway, Facebook will surface related articles with an alternative viewpoint just below the story. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's hard to escape the gravity of internet giants like Facebook and Google. Not only do they offer an ever-growing number of apps and services that are hard to live without, many other popular websites and applications incorporate code written by these companies. That's because today's web developers don't typically write all of their code themselves. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

American teenagers have a complicated and sometimes contradictory relationship with their smartphones—just like the rest of us. A new Pew Research study shows that kids are trying to negotiate between worry that they spend too much time on their phones and anxiety when they are separated from their devices. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, a couple of hundred venture capitalists descended on the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California, for Y Combinator's twice-annual Demo Day. The event showcases graduates of the famous incubator's training program to investors who hope to sniff out the next Dropbox, Airbnb, or Stripe, all of which emerged from Y Combinator. But increasingly, the entrepreneurs marching onto the stage are as likely to be experts at manipulating molecules as writing lines of code. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

At the start of August, Airbnb announced an essay contest: Four winners would fly to China to stay in a watchtower on the Great Wall. They’d be treated to a gourmet dinner at sunset, a traditional Chinese music experience, and a sunrise historical hike through the countryside. The official Beijing Tourism Twitter account even promoted it. Six days later, the company called the contest off abruptly. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Back in 2012, a Seattle-based startup named FiftyThree launched a drawing app designed for iPad, with a name that sounded like it was designed specifically for an Apple crowd: Paper. Despite its simplicity and also because of it, Apple crowned the iPad App of the Year. Tech writers described it as “the next great iPad app”, “a superbly designed sketching app,” and “a fresh canvas ready and waiting for your ideas, inspiration, and art. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Aaah, the traditions of a new school year. New teachers, new backpacks, new crushes—and algorithms trawling students’ social media posts. Blake Prewitt, superintendent of Lakeview school district in Battle Creek, Michigan, says he typically wakes up each morning to twenty new emails from a social media monitoring system the district activated earlier this year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We’ll never know who said it first, nor whether the coiner spoke sheepishly or proudly, angrily or slyly. As is often the case with offhand remarks that turn into maxims, the origin of It’s not a bug, it’s a feature is murky. What we do know is that the expression has been popular among programmers for a long time, at least since the days when Wang and DEC were hot names in computing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For all their differences, big tech companies agree on where we’re heading: into a future dominated by smart machines. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple all say that every aspect of our lives will soon be transformed by artificial intelligence and machine learning, through innovations such as self-driving cars and facial recognition. Yet the people whose work underpins that vision don’t much resemble the society their inventions are supposed to transform. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Earlier this year, the executors of #DeleteFacebook engaged in a form of decentralized group therapy. Catharsis came in a zip file downloaded before deletion, containing the data you shared with Facebook—your friends, your photos, your posts—and with it, the data Facebook shared about you: the ads you clicked, the list of businesses that know where you live and where else you shop. A portrait of the modern digital identity—or, at least, part of it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Apple's programming language Swift and the Android developer favorite Kotlin are two of the fastest growing languages of all time. But that growth might be starting to slow according to a new report. The analyst firm RedMonk has tracked programmers' interest in various programming languages since 2011. During that time, Swift and Kotlin grew faster than any other language the firm tracked, including Google's Go and Mozilla's Rust. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A merger that would have given a conservative broadcasting company access to 73 percent of US households is now officially dead. Today, the Tribune Media Company announced that it has terminated its $3.9 billion merger agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, and is now suing Sinclair for $1 billion for breach of contract. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Earlier this year, Amazon successfully patented an “ultrasonic tracker of a worker’s hands to monitor performance of assigned tasks.” Eerie, yes, but far from the only creative method of employee surveillance. Upwork watches freelancers through their webcams, and a UK railway company recently equipped workers with a wearable that measures their energy levels. By one study’s estimate, 94percent of organizations currently monitor workers in some way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Patreon, the membership platform that helps online creators make a living, announced Wednesday that it has acquired Memberful, another membership service that caters to larger creators including Gimlet Media and Stratechery. Though they operate in the same, growing field, Memberful and Patreon don't consider themselves direct competitors, and Patreon says that for now, the Memberful platform will remain independent. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On Monday, MoviePass announced yet another entirely new model for subscribers. After announcing that it would be raising prices and limiting options for users of its all-you-can-eat movie theater subscription service, they reversed course. Now, users will be able to enjoy three movies per month, with limited restrictions on releases, for the same $9.95 that previously got them all of the movies they wanted to see. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When a political ad goes viral on Facebook, conventional wisdom holds that it was a success. After all, the Golden Rule of advertising in the digital age is simple: Engagement is good. It’s good for Facebook, too. The more time users spend watching, commenting, clicking, and sharing on its platform, the more money the company makes. Little wonder, then, that Facebook allows advertisers to test which ads get the most engagement with a single click. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Once upon a time, a bot deep in a game of tic-tac-toe figured out that making improbable moves caused its bot opponent to crash. Smart. Also sassy. Moments when experimental bots go rogue—some would call it cheating—are not typically celebrated in scientific papers or press releases. Most AI researchers strive to avoid them, but a select few document and study these bugs in the hopes of revealing the roots of algorithmic impishness. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The email blast from the head of my son and daughter’s theater group relayed a frantic plea: “We need to raise $16,000 before the upcoming spring performances,” Anya Wallach, the executive director of Random Farms Kids’ Theater, in Westchester, New York, wrote in late May. If the money didn’t materialize in time, she warned, there could be a serious problem with the shows: nobody would hear the actors. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In retrospect, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz realizes that all the hype was a big mistake. “I think we were arrogant,” he says. It’s nearly 11 pm on a Monday night in late July, and we are in the back room of an Italian restaurant not far from the Fort Lauderdale beach. It’s a place he often takes visitors who make the trek from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Mickey Mouse’s Florida homeland for a demo. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices