Egypt’s parliament has passed a law giving the state powers to block social media accounts and penalize journalists held to be publishing fake news. Under the law passed on Monday social media accounts and blogs with more than 5,000 followers on sites such as Twitter and Facebook will be treated …
your ad hereClassic 1965 Ford Mustang Given Self-driving Abilities
Scientists from Cranfield University in Britain have teamed up with the engineering firm Siemens to retro-fit a classic 1965 Ford Mustang with driverless technology. They recently tested it on a racetrack at the Goodwood Festival of Speed — considered the largest motoring garden party in the world. VOA’s Julie Taboh …
your ad here3-D Printing Helps Restore 18th Century Chinese Pagoda
Twenty-first century technology has helped restore an 18th century Chinese pagoda in the heart of London. Faith Lapidus has the story. …
your ad hereMachine Transforms Household Trash into Fuel
British inventor Nik Spencer believes household garbage is a valuable and underrated resource. That’s because trash happens to be the perfect fuel for his latest invention: the Home Energy Resources Unit, or HERU. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …
your ad hereTechnology Enhances Soccer Watching Experience
Football fans are watching the World Cup on multiple screens in bars, on their phones while they should be working, on TVs at home with their friends. One day, they could be following the action in 3D. Researchers at the University of Washington are developing a way to watch soccer …
your ad hereRising Greenhouse Gases Making Food Less Nutritious
Temperatures around the world are rising as humans burn coal, oil and other fossil fuels for energy. Burning those fuels releases heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But it does more than that. CO2 is vital for plant growth. While having more of it sounds like a good thing, scientists …
your ad hereIn Purge, Twitter Removing ‘Suspicious’ Followers
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. …
your ad hereFacebook Faces First Fine in Data Scandal Involving Cambridge Analytica
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), …
your ad hereFormer Apple Engineer Charged With Stealing Self-driving Car Technology
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 …
your ad hereAs Technology Advances, Women Are Left Behind in Digital Divide
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 …
your ad hereWhatsApp Launches Campaign in India to Spot Fake Messages
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, …
your ad hereNew Startup Brings Robotics into Seniors’ Homes
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 …
your ad hereNew Startup Brings Robotics into Seniors Homes
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? …
your ad hereYouTube Aims to Crack Down on Fake News, Support Journalism
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 …
your ad hereSome in Washington Wary as Silicon Valley Welcomes Chinese Investments
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 …
your ad hereSome in Washington Wary as Silicon Valley Embraces Chinese Investments
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. …
your ad hereResearchers: Smart Toilet Will Analyze Urine for Medical Data
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. …
your ad hereCalifornia Senators Reach Agreement on Net Neutrality Bill
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 …
your ad hereNew Treatments Give Hope to People With Brain Tumors
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 …
your ad hereRussian Search Engine Alerts Google to Possible Data Problem
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 …
your ad here3D Printing Used to Make Synthetic Bones for Grafts
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. …
your ad hereAI Robot Sophia Wows at Ethiopia ICT Expo
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 …
your ad hereHow Much Artificial Intelligence Surveillance Is Too Much?
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 …
your ad hereIndia Demands Facebook Curb Spread of False Information on WhatsApp
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 …
your ad hereI Never Said That! High-tech Deception of ‘Deepfake’ Videos
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 …
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