Sunday, December 19, 2021

A profile of Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive, which marked its 25th anniversary earlier this year and is now home to over 70 PB of data (Joel Khalili/TechRadar)

Joel Khalili / TechRadar:
A profile of Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive, which marked its 25th anniversary earlier this year and is now home to over 70 PB of data  —  Meet Brewster Kahle, the internet's chief librarian  —  Audio player loading...  On the same day in 1996, Brewster Kahle founded two separate but closely connected organizations.



How Chinese Wikipedia volunteers fighting censorship, threats, arrest, and violence expose the challenges to the Wikimedia Foundation's free-knowledge mission (Alex Pasternack/Fast Company)

Alex Pasternack / Fast Company:
How Chinese Wikipedia volunteers fighting censorship, threats, arrest, and violence expose the challenges to the Wikimedia Foundation's free-knowledge mission  —  This past July, before he was banned from Wikipedia, Techyan was one of dozens of volunteers preparing to speak at the free-knowledge movement's annual conference, Wikimania.



Enforcement Directorate arrests NBFC CEO in probe against Chinese-backed loan apps

e was later produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Hyderabad that sent him to 15 days' judicial custody, the agency said in a statement. The action is linked to the ED's investigation against a number of Indian NBFCs which are in the business of instant personal loans through mobile apps (applications). https://ift.tt/32h1Aay

CSC, Infosys tie up to upskill 6 cr citizen in rural India

New Delhi, Dec 19 (PTI) CSC e-Governance Services India and IT giant Infosys have collaborated to impart digital skills among six crore students of the age of 10 to 22 years, mainly in rural areas in the country. https://ift.tt/30GGZfn

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Interview with Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute on how Congress can regulate social media platforms while abiding by the First Amendment (Nilay Patel/The Verge)

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Interview with Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute on how Congress can regulate social media platforms while abiding by the First Amendment  —  One of the hardest problems at the intersection of tech and policy right now is the question of how to regulate social media platforms.



Profile of Tether CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, who previously ran a company in China that faced lawsuits over unpaid bills and fines for late tax payments (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Profile of Tether CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, who previously ran a company in China that faced lawsuits over unpaid bills and fines for late tax payments  —  Jean-Louis van der Velde's career offered few clues that he would become a key figure in fast-growing industry



Amazon issues an update to its Appstore to fix the issues that left customers unable to use their downloaded apps on Android 12 (Igor Bonifacic/Engadget)

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Amazon issues an update to its Appstore to fix the issues that left customers unable to use their downloaded apps on Android 12  —  Amazon has addressed the issue that had left those with Android 12 phones unable to use apps they had downloaded from the company's Appstore.



Investigation: a dozen automated TikTok accounts, registered as 13-year-olds, were shown tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within a few weeks of joining (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Investigation: a dozen automated TikTok accounts, registered as 13-year-olds, were shown tens of thousands of weight-loss videos within a few weeks of joining  —  The app's algorithm can send users down rabbit holes of narrow interest, resulting in potentially dangerous content such as emaciated images …



E-waste emits emerging synthetic antioxidants, say researchers

A new research has detected a variety of emerging synthetic antioxidants, called hindered phenol and sulphur antioxidants, in dust from electronic waste recycling workshops, possibly posing risks for the workers inside. https://ift.tt/3spM2My

AI language models like GPT-3 can achieve up to 97% accuracy on some Winograd schemas, but understanding language doesn't equate to understanding the world (Melanie Mitchell/Quanta Magazine)

Melanie Mitchell / Quanta Magazine:
AI language models like GPT-3 can achieve up to 97% accuracy on some Winograd schemas, but understanding language doesn't equate to understanding the world  —  It's simple enough for AI to seem to comprehend data, but devising a true test of a machine's knowledge has proved difficult.



Meta develops AI to bring children's drawings to life

Meta (formerly Facebook) researchers have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can identify and automatically animate the human-like figures in children's drawings with a high success rate, and without any human guidance. https://ift.tt/3GYFybR

A look at Russia's efforts to censor Western social media with fines and takedown requests, as most posts Russia wanted removed in 2021 were pro-Navalny content (BBC)

BBC:
A look at Russia's efforts to censor Western social media with fines and takedown requests, as most posts Russia wanted removed in 2021 were pro-Navalny content  —  Google and Meta face the threat of multi-million-dollar fines for failing to delete content that the Russian government considers illegal …



Technology can play key role in taking education to last mile: VP Venkaiah Naidu

Naidu said there is a need for a value-based transformation in the education system, as envisioned in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. https://ift.tt/3p6M6yK

Sources: China is expanding its practice of taking minority stakes in private Chinese tech companies to include firms possessing large amounts of key data (Reuters)

Reuters:
Sources: China is expanding its practice of taking minority stakes in private Chinese tech companies to include firms possessing large amounts of key data  —  The Chinese government has been expanding its practice of taking minority stakes in private companies beyond those specialising …



Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; it was last valued at $1.2B in 2024 (Meir Orbach/CTech)

Meir Orbach / CTech : Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; ...