Author: Techman

Hundreds of orange robots zoom and whiz back and forth like miniature bumper cars -- but instead of colliding, they're following a carefully plotted path to transport thousands of items ordered from online giant Amazon. A young woman fitted out in a red safety vest, with pouches full of sensors and radio transmitters on her belt and a tablet in hand, moves through their complicated choreography. This robot ballet takes place at the new Amazon order fulfillment center that opened on Staten Island in New York in September. In an 80,000-square-meter (855,000-square-foot) space filled with the whirring sounds of machinery, the Seattle-based e-commerce titan has deployed some of the most advanced instruments in the rapidly growing field of robots capable of collaborating with humans. The high-tech vest, worn at Amazon…

Suraj Nachre works long hours and regularly misses meals but he treasures his job as a driver for a food delivery startup -- working in a booming industry that highlights India's expanding apps-based gig-economy. The 26-year-old is one of hundreds of thousands of young Indians who, armed with their smartphones and motorcycles, courier dinners to offices and homes ordered at the swipe of a finger. A surge in the popularity of food-ordering apps like Uber Eats and Swiggy provides a welcome source of income for many as India's unemployment rate sits at a reported 45-year high. But they also shine a spotlight on the prevalence of short-term contracts in the economy, raising questions about workers' rights and conditions and the long-term viability of the jobs. "(These delivery workers) are treated…

Striking a pose in the mirror, Swedish model and stylist Lisa Anckarman shows off a new jacket with a difference on Instagram – though it fits her perfectly in the photo, it's a virtual design that does not exist in real life. She is among a number of trendsetters embracing cutting-edge technology that offers the opportunity to sate appetites for fast fashion while dramatically slashing the emissions, pollution and labor abuses linked to the garment industry. "I really liked the idea and the aspect that it's good for the environment," Anckarman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as she discussed her virtual styling. Actually I think it maybe looked too good because people didn't really get that it was digital." "People were asking me 'Where did you buy this?' and I…

Twitter said Tuesday it is tightening up rules for European Union political ads ahead of bloc-wide elections this spring, following similar moves by fellow tech giants Facebook and Google. The social media company said it is extending restrictions already in place for federal elections in the United States. Under the new rules, which will also apply in Australia and India, political advertisers will need to be certified. It's also taking steps to increase transparency. Ads, in the form of "promoted tweets," from the past seven days will be stored in a publicly accessible database showing how much was spent, how many times it was seen and the demographics of the people who saw it. Facebook and Google have put in similar systems ahead of the EU vote in May, as…

Levitating objects and plastic boxes may not seem to have anything to do with landscape painting, but they are the contemporary take on an ancient Chinese art style called "shan shui hua" or mountain water painting. Dating back more than 1,000 years, this style of landscape painting, which uses brush and ink, has evolved over time. The art form is evolving once again in an exhibit called "Lightscapes: Re-envisioning the Shanshuihua" at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles. The goal of Nick Dong and Chi-Tsung Wu, the two artists in the exhibit, is to connect the new, digital generation to this traditional type of art and to capture its essence in a new way through modern technology.  The exhibit forces the viewer to slow down and experience a different…

Amazon, which ships millions of packages a year to shopper's doorsteps, says it wants to be greener. The online retail giant announced plans Monday to make half of all its shipments carbon-neutral by 2030. To reach that goal, the online retail giant says it will use more renewable energy like solar power; have more packages delivered in electric vans; and push suppliers to remake their packaging. McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other big companies that generate lots of waste have announced similar initiatives, hoping to appeal to customers concerned about the environment. Amazon is calling its program "Shipment Zero," and plans to publicly publish its carbon footprint for the first time later this year. Seattle-based Amazon said it spent the past two years mapping its carbon footprint and figuring out ways to…

Facebook said on Thursday it had disrupted an attempt to influence voters in Moldova, increasing concerns that EU elections in May could be prey to malign activity. Employees of the Moldovan government were linked to some of the activity, the California-based social media company said. Authorities in Chisnau, capital of the tiny former Soviet republic, denied knowledge. Facebook said it dismantled scores of pages and accounts designed to look like independent opinion pages and to impersonate a local fact-checking organization ahead of Moldova's elections later this month. "So they created this feedback loop," Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters in Brussels. "We did assess that there were links between some of that activity and individuals associated with the Moldovan government." The government said it welcomed any initiative…

British lawmakers issued a scathing report Monday that calls for tougher rules on Facebook to keep it from acting like "digital gangsters" and intentionally violating data privacy and competition laws. The report on fake news and disinformation on social media sites followed an 18-month investigation by Parliament's influential media committee. The committee recommended that social media sites should have to follow a mandatory code of ethics overseen by an independent regulator to better control harmful or illegal content.   The report called out Facebook in particular, saying that the site's structure seems to be designed to "conceal knowledge of and responsibility for specific decisions."   "It is evident that Facebook intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws," the report states. It also accuses CEO Mark Zuckerberg of…

In early November, word began to leak that Amazon was serious about choosing New York to build a giant new campus. The city was eager to lure the company and its thousands of high-paying tech jobs, offering billions in tax incentives and lighting the Empire State Building in Amazon orange. Even Governor Andrew Cuomo got in on the action: “I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes,” he joked at the time. Then Amazon made it official: It chose the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens to build a $2.5 billion campus that could house 25,000 workers, in addition to new offices planned for northern Virginia. Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Democrats who have been political adversaries for years, trumpeted the decision as…

Amazon jilted New York City on Valentine's Day, scrapping plans to build a massive headquarters campus in Queens amid fierce opposition from politicians angry about nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and the company's anti-union stance. With millions of jobs and a bustling economy, New York can withstand the blow, but experts say the decision by the e-commerce giant to walk away and take with it 25,000 promised jobs could scare off other companies considering moving to or expanding in the city, which wants to be seen as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast. "One of the real risks here is the message we send to companies that want to come to New York and expand to New York," said Julie Samuels, the executive director of industry group Tech:…

The Mars Opportunity Rover landed on the Red Planet's surface in 2004 for a 90-day mission of exploration. More than 14 years later, NASA has finally closed the book on this tiny rover that wandered across Mars sending back troves of information. VOA's Kevin Enochs reports. ...

A report says Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are negotiating a “multibillion dollar” fine for the social network's privacy lapses. The Washington Post said Thursday that the fine would be the largest ever imposed on a tech company. Citing unnamed sources, it also said the two sides have not yet agreed on an exact amount.  Facebook has had several high-profile privacy lapses in the past couple of years. The FTC has been looking into the Cambridge Analytica scandal since last March. The data mining firm accessed the data of some 87 million Facebook users without their consent.  At issue is whether Facebook is in violation of a 2011 agreement with the FTC promising to protect user privacy. Facebook and the FTC declined to comment. ...

Mexico's new government is trying to slash the cost of sending cash home for Mexican families living abroad and is hoping competition from “fintechs” (financial technology) will encourage banks and services like Western Union to reduce commissions and improve exchange rates. Deputy Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said the government did not plan to place new regulations on the flow of remittances, one of the country's largest sources of foreign currency and a lifeline for millions of poor families. Sending remittances However, the former World Bank executive envisaged that the increasing use of money transfer apps would help bring down the cost of sending remittances. Currently, the commission charged and the foreign exchange rates imposed together take a bite out of each remittance of 8 percent on average. Herrera said that…

Google plans to invest more than $13 billion this year on new and expanded data centers and offices across the U.S. CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news in a blog post Wednesday , emphasizing the company's growth outside its Mountain View, California, home and across the Midwest and South. "2019 marks the second year in a row we'll be growing faster outside of the (San Francisco) Bay Area than in it," he wrote. Google will build new data centers in Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. Pichai estimated the construction of the new centers will employ 10,000 workers. It makes good political sense for Google to highlight its expansions outside coastal cities, said CFRA Research analyst Scott Kessler.  U.S. legislators have paid increasing attention to Google and…

As a nasty diplomatic feud deepens between the two countries over the tech company, involving arrests and execution orders, it hasn't gone unnoticed that Huawei's bright red fan-shaped logo is plastered prominently on the set of "Hockey Night in Canada." TV hosts regularly remind the 1.8 million weekly viewers that program segments are “presented by Huawei smartphones.” The cheery corporate message contrasts with the standoff over the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant. In what looks like retaliation, China detained two Canadians and plans to execute a third — heavy-handed tactics that, because they leave some Canadians with the impression the privately owned company is an arm of the Chinese government, give its sponsorship a surreal quality. The TV deal is one of many…

A Saudi Arabian government app that allows men in the country to monitor and control their female relatives' travel at the click of a button should be removed from Google and Apple's online stores, a U.S. politician and activists said on Wednesday. Human rights campaigners argued the tech giants are enabling abuses against women and girls in the ultra-conservative kingdom by hosting the app. The free Absher app, created by the Saudi interior ministry, allows men to update or withdraw permissions for their wives and female relatives to travel internationally and get SMS updates if their passports are used, said human rights researchers. The app is available in the Saudi version of the Google and Apple online stores. "Part of the app's design is to discriminate against women," said Rothna…

For the 750 million people globally who can't read, using a smartphone can be difficult. One company is helping illiterate and low literacy users get connected. Tina Trinh reports. ...

The U.S. military wants to expand its use of artificial intelligence in warfare, but says it will take care to deploy the technology in accordance with the nation's values.   The Pentagon outlined its first AI strategy in a report released Tuesday.   The plan calls for accelerating the use of AI systems throughout the military, from intelligence-gathering operations to predicting maintenance problems in planes or ships. It urges the U.S. to advance such technology swiftly before other countries chip away at its technological advantage.   "Other nations, particularly China and Russia, are making significant investments in AI for military purposes, including in applications that raise questions regarding international norms and human rights," the report says.   The report makes little mention of autonomous weapons but cites an existing 2012…

Russian lawmakers backed tighter internet controls on Tuesday to defend against foreign meddling in draft legislation that critics warn could disrupt Russia's internet and be used to stifle dissent. The legislation, which some Russian media have likened to an online "iron curtain," passed its first of three readings in the 450-seat lower chamber of parliament. The bill seeks to route Russian web traffic and data through points controlled by state authorities and proposes building a national Domain Name System to allow the internet to continue functioning even if the country is cut off from foreign infrastructure. The legislation was drafted in response to what its authors describe as an aggressive new U.S. national cybersecurity strategy passed last year. The Agora human rights group said earlier this month that the legislation…

Social media service Reddit Inc. says it has raised $300 million in a financing round led by Chinese internet giant Tencent. Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, told CNBC on Monday that values the privately held company at $3 billion. Half the new money came from Tencent, Asia's most valuable tech company. Other investors included Sequoia, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, Quiet Capital, VY and Snoop Dogg. The announcement prompted criticism of Reddit for linking itself with a company from China, where the ruling Communist Party enforces extensive online censorship. Access to Reddit is blocked in China. Tencent operates online games and popular WeChat social media service. It owns 40 percent of "Fortnite" creator Epic Games and 15 percent of photo service Snap. ...

The Iowa Democratic Party on Monday proposed the biggest changes to the state's famed caucuses in nearly 50 years by recommending Iowans be able to participate virtually.   If approved, the measure would allow people to caucus using telephones or smart devices during the days leading up to the Feb. 3 caucus night.   It's a dramatic shift from the current system in which caucus-goers have to physically show up at a site — often a school, church or community center — and show their support for presidential candidates by standing in groups. If the group doesn't meet an established threshold, the participants have to select another candidate.   It's an often chaotic process that plays out before banks of television cameras on an evening that formally ushers in the…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order asking federal government agencies to dedicate more resources and investment into research, promotion and training on artificial intelligence, known as AI. Under the American AI Initiative, the administration is directing agencies to prioritize AI investments in research and development, increase access to federal data and models for that research and prepare workers to adapt to the era of AI. There was no specific funding announced for the initiative, but the White House wants better reporting and tracking of spending on AI-related research and development. The White House said investment in AI is "critical to creating the industries of the future, like autonomous cars, industrial robots, algorithms for disease diagnosis, and more." The initiative aims to make sure the United States…

A much-hyped network upgrade called "5G" means different things to different people. To industry proponents, it's the next huge innovation in wireless internet. To the U.S. government, it's the backbone technology of a future that America will wrestle with China to control. To many average people, it's simply a mystery. The technology is one of the issues expected to take center stage at the MWC mobile conference in Barcelona, Spain, this month. The interest goes well beyond engineers: In Washington, there are fears that China could take the lead in developing the technology and sell equipment that could be used to spy on Americans. What, exactly, is 5G wireless — and will you even notice when it comes online? What is 5G? 5G is a new technical standard for wireless…

A new type of solar panel promises a cheap, flexible way to get more power from the sun. They may help the growing renewable energy industry expand even faster. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. ...

In Algeria, it was banned from bidding for public contracts after one of its executives was convicted of bribery.   In Zambia, it was probed over allegations of bribery involving a multi-million-dollar contract to build cell towers in rural areas.   In the Solomon Islands, it was accused of offering millions of dollars to the ruling party in exchange for an undersea fiber optic cable contract.   In all three cases – and half a dozen others in recent years – the alleged perpetrator was Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecom behemoth facing scrutiny from Western nations over allegations of intellectual property theft and espionage.   Saying it poses a national security threat, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand have banned the company from building new, state of the art 5G…

Scientists are helping patients fight flu, diabetes and other maladies with the help of a smart watch that monitors body chemistry for blood sugar, sweat and other data. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas say it can also help couples get pregnant by tracking the stress. Mariia Prus traveled to Texas to learn more. Joy Wagner narrates her report. ...

A new kind of electric car charging point has been switched on in London. It's designed to make electric vehicle, or EV, charging infrastructure cheaper and greener. It also acts as a data port, as VOA's Mariama Diallo reports. ...

One of the world's top research universities, the U.S.-based University of California, Berkeley, has stopped new research projects with Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecommunications giant. The university's suspension, which took effect on January 30, came after the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the corporation and some of its affiliates two days earlier. The department announced a 13-count indictment against Huawei, accusing it of stealing trade secrets, obstruction of justice, violations of economic sanctions and wire fraud. Vice Chancellor for Research Randy Katz said in a letter addressed to the Chancellor's cabinet members the campus would continue to honor existing commitments with Huawei that provide funding for current research projects. Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has been under house arrest in Canada since December 1 for allegedly…