Category: Technology

Social networking platform Twitter announced Wednesday it will be removing accounts it had deemed suspicious from user's follower counts, as part of a recent push to promote accuracy on the website. This could reduce the number of "followers" of some of the website's most popular users, including politicians and celebrities. The website had locked accounts of users where Twitter "detected sudden changes in account behavior," such as sharing misleading links, being blocked by a large number of accounts that account had interacted with, or a large number of unsolicited replies to other users' tweets, Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde wrote. The accounts are locked, preventing one from logging in and using the account until the account's owner verified their use. Wednesday's change will remove these locked accounts from users' follower…

Facebook will be facing its first fine in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the social media platform allowed the data mining firm to access the private information of millions of users without their consent or knowledge. A British government investigative office, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), fined Facebook 500,000 pounds, or $663,000 - the maximum amount that can be levied for the violation of British data privacy laws. In a report, the ICO found Facebook had broken the law in failing to protect the data of the estimated 87 million users affected by the security breach. The ICO’s investigation concluded that Facebook "contravened the law by failing to safeguard people’s information," the report read. It also found that the company failed to be transparent about how…

A federal court has charged a former Apple engineer with stealing trade secrets related to a self-driving car and attempting to flee to China. Agents in San Jose, California, arrested Xiaolang Zhang on Saturday, moments before he was to board his flight. Zhang is said to have taken paternity leave in April, traveling to China just after the birth of a child. When he returned, he informed his supervisors he was leaving Apple to join Xiaopeng Motors, a Chinese company in Guangzhao, which also plans to build self-driving cars. But security cameras caught Zhang allegedly entering Apple's self-driving car lab and downloading blueprints and other information on a personal computer at the time he was supposed to be in China on paternity leave. Neither the FBI nor Zhang's lawyers have…

Poverty, gender discrimination and digital illiteracy are leaving women behind as the global workforce increasingly uses digital tools and other technologies, experts warned Tuesday. The so-called "digital divide" has traditionally referred to the gap between those who have access to computers and the internet, and those with limited or no access. But technology experts say women and girls with poor digital literacy skills will be the hardest hit and will struggle to find jobs as technology advances. "Digital skills are indispensable for girls and young women to obtain safe employment in the formal labor market," said Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke, founder of Women's Worldwide Web, a charity that trains girls in digital literacy. She said "offline factors" like poverty, gender discrimination and gender stereotypes were preventing girls and women from benefiting from…

After hoax messages on WhatsApp fueled deadly mob violence in India, the Facebook-owned messaging platform published full-page advertisements in prominent English and Hindi language newspapers advising users on how to spot misinformation. The advertisements are the first measure taken by the social media company to raise awareness about fake messages, following a warning by the Indian government that it needs to take immediate action to curb the spread of false information.   While India is not the only country to be battling the phenomenon of fake messaging on social media, it has taken a menacing turn here — in the past two months more than a dozen people have died in lynchings sparked by false posts spread on WhatsApp that the victims were child kidnappers.   Ironically, the digital media giant…

Senior citizens - adults 65 and older - will outnumber children in the United States for the first time by 2035, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.As their number increases, the demand for elder care is also growing. For the past 12 years, SenCura has been providing non-medical in-home care for this segment of the population in Northern Virginia.Company founder Cliff Glier says its services "include things as bathing, dressing, companionship, meal planning and prep and transportation, pretty much everything in and around the home that seniors typically need help with.”  Hollie, one of SenCura’s professional caregivers, visits 88-year-old Olga Robertson every day for three hours.She cooks for her, takes her to appointments, plays some brain games with her and goes walking with her around the neighborhood or in the…

In this age of the smart machine, robots are increasingly playing roles in different fields, from construction and hospitality to the military and art. When it comes to caregiving for the elderly, which depends mainly on human interaction, it turns out robots can also help. But will they replace humans? Faiza Elmasry went searching for an answer. Faith Lapidus narrates. ...

Google's YouTube says it is taking several steps to ensure the veracity of news on its service by cracking down on misinformation and supporting news organizations.   The company said Monday it will make "authoritative" news sources more prominent, especially in the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly.   At such times, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of news stories in video search results, as well as warnings that the stories can change. The goal is to counter the fake videos that can proliferate immediately after shootings, natural disasters and other major happenings. For example, YouTube search results prominently showed videos purporting to "prove" that mass shootings like the one that killed at least 59 in Las Vegas were fake, acted out by…

Twitter shares tumbled Monday on concerns the social media's efforts to crack down on fake accounts would affect its user base, and potentially its finances. At 1810 GMT, shares of the social media company were down 6.0 percent at $43.89 after earlier shedding almost 10 percent. The decline follows a report late Friday in the Washington Post that described how Twitter's greater scrutiny of user data had resulted in more than 70 million account suspensions in May and June. The efforts are a response to criticism that social media companies have done too little to confront the spread of disinformation and fake news. CFRA analyst Scott Kessler on Monday downgraded Twitter to "sell" from "hold," citing the Washington Post article, which raised concerns about its official active user count and…

Some students in Virginia who play the guitar are also learning how to build them. It's part of an after-school program where middle and high school students learn about science and music through the design and function of an electric guitar. The workshops, sponsored by the nonprofit Music for Life, are free for those who cannot afford to participate. VOA's Deborah Block takes us to a high school in Manassas, Virginia, where the students are learning the challenges of making an electric guitar. ...

While the Trump administration is putting tariffs on Chinese imports, another battle has been brewing about whether the United States should block Chinese investments in some U.S. companies that work in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other key technology.   Some of these technologies have U.S. national security implications, argues the Department of Defense in a report on growing Chinese ties to U.S. firms. Lawmakers in Washington are considering expanding a Treasury Department review process that looks at investments from foreign entities.   “I assure you that the threat China poses is real and that the dangers we worry about are already taking effect,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texan Republican, who is sponsoring the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, the bill that would strengthen the review.  “Our inaction…

U.S. policymakers are raising national security concerns about Chinese money flooding into U.S. startups in fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics. But in Silicon Valley, there is a sense that ties with China are mutually beneficial. Michelle Quinn reports. ...

Nano technology researchers at the University of Cambridge are developing an intelligent toilet that might change the nature of medicine. It automatically analyzes a user's urine to capture valuable medical data. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. ...

Key California lawmakers said Thursday they've reached an agreement on legislation to enshrine net neutrality provisions in state law after the Federal Communications Commission dumped rules requiring an equal playing field on the internet. California's bill is one of the nation's most aggressive efforts to continue net neutrality, and the deal comes after a bitter fight among Democrats over how far the state should go. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, who repudiated his own legislation when major pieces were removed two weeks ago, said those provisions have been restored under his agreement with Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago. "We need to ensure the internet is an open field where everyone has access, the companies that are providing internet access are not picking winners and losers," Wiener told reporters at a Capitol news…

Republican Senator John McCain is perhaps the best known person who has brain cancer. His is a glioblastoma, the most deadly type. Since McCain announced the news last year, he has had surgery and chemotherapy. There’s no cure for this type of cancer, and even with treatment, most people don’t live longer than three years after being diagnosed. Surgeons often can’t remove the entire tumor because it might affect brain functions, or it might be attached to the spinal column. These tumors often grow tentacles that make them impossible to cut out completely. Untreated, people have just months to live. But even with treatment, the two-year survival rate is just 30 percent, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. What’s hopeful is that some new treatments are showing promise. A…

The Russian Internet company Yandex said Thursday that its public search engine has been turning up dozens of Google documents that appear meant for private use, suggesting there may have been a data breach. Yandex spokesman Ilya Grabovsky said that some Internet users contacted the company Wednesday to say that its public search engine was yielding what looked like personal Google files. Russian social media users started posting scores of such documents, including an internal memo from a Russian bank, press summaries and company business plans.   Grabovsky said Yandex has alerted Google to the concerns.   It was unclear whether the files were meant to be publicly viewable by their authors and how many there were. Google did not comment.   Grabovsky said that a Yandex search only yields…

Orthopedic surgery can be tricky. So, researchers at Northwestern University are engineering new materials to make 3D printed bones that are a perfect match, ready for grafts. Faith Lapidus reports. ...

Sophia, one of the world's most advanced and perhaps most famous artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robot, was a big hit at this year's Information & Communication Technology International Expo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Visitors, including various dignitaries, were excited to meet the life-like AI robot as she communicated with expo guests and expressed a wide range of facial expressions. As VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports, Sophia has become an international sensation. ...

When a CIA-backed venture capital fund took an interest in Rana el Kaliouby's face-scanning technology for detecting emotions, the computer scientist and her colleagues did some soul-searching — and then turned down the money. "We're not interested in applications where you're spying on people," said el Kaliouby, the CEO and co-founder of the Boston startup Affectiva. The company has trained its artificial intelligence systems to recognize if individuals are happy or sad, tired or angry, using a photographic repository of more than 6 million faces. Recent advances in AI-powered computer vision have accelerated the race for self-driving cars and powered the increasingly sophisticated photo-tagging features found on Facebook and Google. But as these prying AI "eyes" find new applications in store checkout lines, police body cameras and war zones, the…

India has asked Facebook to prevent the spread of false texts on its WhatsApp messaging application, saying the content has sparked a series of lynchings and mob beatings across the country. False messages about child abductors spread over WhatsApp have reportedly led to at least 31 deaths in 10 different states over the past year, including a deadly mob lynching Sunday of five men in the western state of Maharashtra. In a strongly worded statement Tuesday, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the service "cannot evade accountability and responsibility" when messaging platforms are used to spread misinformation. "The government has also conveyed in no uncertain terms that Whatsapp must take immediate action to end this menace and ensure that their platform is not used for such mala fide…

A Portuguese tech firm is uncorking an Android smartphone whose case is made from cork, a natural and renewable material native to the Iberian country. The Ikimobile phone is one of the first to use materials other than plastic, metal and glass and represents a boost for the country's technology sector, which has made strides in software development but less in hardware manufacturing. A Made in Portugal version of the phone is set to launch this year as Ikimobile completes a plant to transfer most of its production from China. “Ikimobile wants to put Portugal on the path to the future and technologies by emphasizing this Portuguese product,” chief executive Tito Cardoso told Reuters at Ikimobile’s plant in the cork-growing area of Coruche, 80 km (50 miles) west of Lisbon.…

It was 50 years ago the sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey by author Arthur C. Clarke and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, opened in theaters across America to mixed reviews. The almost three-hour long film, was too cerebral and slow- moving to be appreciated by general audiences in 1968. Today, half a century later, the movie is one of the American Film Institute’s top 100 films of all time. VOA’s Penelope Poulou explores Space Odyssey’s power and its relevance 50 years since its creation. ...

Hey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Donald Trump on that video, or am I being duped?   New technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they've never said. Republicans and Democrats predict this high-tech way of putting words in someone's mouth will become the latest weapon in disinformation wars against the United States and other Western democracies.   We're not talking about lip-syncing videos. This technology uses facial mapping and artificial intelligence to produce videos that appear so genuine it's hard to spot the phonies. Lawmakers and intelligence officials worry that the bogus videos — called deepfakes — could be used to threaten national security or interfere in elections.   So far, that hasn't happened, but experts…

Carlos Garcia was three years into his first job in technology at Merrill Lynch when he first learned what a 401K retirement savings account was. He was floored when he learned that a colleague had already saved $30,000 in three years, and the company had matched it.   The concept of making money off money was foreign to Garcia, an MIT graduate who was born in Texas to immigrants from Mexico. His story is not uncommon among U.S. Hispanics, who lag behind other demographic groups when it comes to saving for retirement. But for Garcia, the episode became the inspiration many years later for Finhabits, a bilingual digital platform designed to make savings and investment accessible for Latinos.   Finhabits launched last year into a crowded world of robo-advisers, savings…

Researchers at a public university in Sweden are creating a 3-D, virtual reality model of the Milky Way. They say their work could change how surgeons separated by oceans collaborate on medical examinations. VOA's Arash Arabasadi reports. ...

June 30 marks Asteroid Day, a U.N.-sanctioned campaign to promote awareness around the world of what's up in the sky. In Milan, scientists are assembling a new telescope that uses "insect vision" to spot risky celestial objects. Faith Lapidus explains. ...

Hailing "great economic success" during the first 18 months of his administration, U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for more companies to be like Taiwan's electronics component manufacturer Foxconn and invest in the United States.  At a groundbreaking event for the foreign company's latest and largest investment in the upper Midwestern state of Wisconsin, Trump described the planned $10 billion manufacturing facility "as the eighth wonder of the world."  That may be a generous exaggeration, but the plant is one of the largest foreign direct investment projects ever in the United States.  "We are demanding from foreign countries, friend and foe, fair and reciprocal trade," Trump said, as he defended his confrontational trade policies and hailed further direct investment in the United States by manufacturers from other countries.  Trump hailed…

Melting glaciers and rising seas in Greenland; raging fires in Northern California; a relentless drought in Somalia and the disappearing Amazon forests. Famine, Feast, Fire and Ice are the four installments in a virtual reality (VR) documentary on climate change by filmmakers Eric Strauss and Danfung Dennis.   The series, showcased at AFI Docs, the American Film Institute’s Documentary festival in Washington, D.C., offers a 360-degree view of destructive phenomena brought by climate change on our planet. It immerses viewers into the extremes of Earth’s changing climate.   Eric Strauss told VOA he hopes that when someone watches the series as it drives home this idea that there is no hiding from global warming. “This is coming for all of us, regardless of where we live or what our income…