California Bill Makes Companies Pay Contracted Workers
A recently passed bill will require app-based companies to reconfigure how it labels and treats contracted workers.
Blogs
AI Can ‘Smell’ Now: Artificial Intelligence Used to Draft New Fragrance Ideas
I’m a fragrance fan – not the noxious mall stuff, though. I stick to the niche world because it smells much more interesting and natural. So I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want AI to be used in drafting a new perfume. But Philyra, a virtual think tank which analyzes hundreds of fragrance industry formulas and […]
Microsoft President Wants to Regulate Big Tech
It’s not every day you hear leading technology companies — or any industry’s top players — asking to be regulated. And yet that’s precisely Microsoft President Brad Smith did when he recently said that government should put up guardrails around engineers in order to regulate big tech. What happens if that doesn’t happen? Democracy might suffer, […]
Facebook Steps into the World of Natural Language Processing with ‘AI Language Research Consortium’
Earlier this year, Facebook put out a call for research proposals centered around natural language processing, or the study of linguistics and AI regarding computer language. Now, it announces which proposals won, and it seems as though the scope of the project is wider than previously thought: the social media platform has found the AI […]
Lithium Batteries Might Disappear – Here’s Why
Due to recent strides in research, calcium may one day replace lithium technology in batteries.
New Bedford Avoids Paying $5 Million in Ransomware Attack by Doing Something Unusual
The city of New Bedford, Mass. — not too far away from us here at TechDecisions — recently avoided paying the $5.3 million hackers demanded of it after successfully launching a ransomware attack. The town’s response? Bargain-and-stall. And it worked. Not the usual method An NPR article reports that after IT personnel discovered the attack the day […]
Heart Surgery is Getting More Technical – Literally
Telemedicine is giving patients more access to healthcare, and helping doctors save lives.
Chinese Data Center Power Usage Doesn’t Include Green Energy and Even Rivals Airline Carbon Emissions
Chinese data center power usage accounted for 99 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, which is the equivalent of 21 million cars, according to a new report. These centers store digital files of all kinds and consume between 3% and 5% of the total global electricity — rivaling airlines’ carbon emissions, says a […]
What Decision Makers Need to Know About the Tech Takeover in Fast-Food Restaurants
Experts are divided on whether or not technology will replace employees in the fast-food industry.
Google Antitrust Probe Launched by Over 40 State Attorneys General
Does your organization trust Google services for email, cloud, etc.? Many U.S. state attorneys general apparently believe its massive rate of data collection makes is more difficult for smaller tech companies to compete, as they’ve launched a probe for potential antitrust violations, according to a recent Reuters report. The Google antitrust probe focuses on “the […]
