Amazon is spending millions of dollars on lobbying as the global online retailer seeks to expand its reach into a swath of industries that President Donald Trump’s broadsides haven’t come close to hitting. Trump’s attacks over the last week targeted what Amazon is best known for: rapidly shipping just about …

Robots are constantly adding new skills to their repertoire. In Italy, the first dedicated interactive service robot, “Robby the hotel concierge” and his brother, “Cayuki the car salesman,” are taking the country by storm with their technological efficiencies. In Finland, another kind of robot – “Elias” is thrilling classrooms with …

China is turning artificial intelligence, face scanning, and other Big Data systems into new tools domestically to enhance the communist party’s command and control systems. The party’s methods of surveillance and increasing use of technology present an interesting contrast with the ongoing scandal concerning the scraping and manipulation of Facebook …

About 1 percent of the world’s population lives with the mental condition called bipolar disorder, characterized by swings between elevated and depressed moods. In most cases, timely interaction with psychotherapists, family and friends can alleviate the symptoms. Researchers in Denmark say modern technology can help by keeping track of a …

Facebook’s acknowledgement that the personal data of most of its 2.2 billion members has probably been scraped by “malicious actors” is the latest example of the social network’s failure to protect its users’ data. Not to mention its seeming inability to even identify the problem until the company was embroiled …

A Brazilian judge has ordered that Facebook Inc pay 111.7 million reais ($33.4 million) for failing to cooperate with a corruption investigation, federal prosecutors said on Thursday, prompting Facebook to say it was exploring “all legal options.” The judge fined Facebook for failing to give access in 2016 to WhatsApp …

Australia’s Privacy Commissioner said on Thursday she had opened a formal investigation into social media giant Facebook Inc after the company confirmed data from 300,000 Australian users may have been used without authorization. The investigation will consider whether Facebook has breached Australia’s privacy laws, Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said in …

Police say a woman shooter entered YouTube headquarters in California Tuesday and wounded at least three people before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mike O’Sullivan reports, the shooter’s motive is unknown. …

A woman who believed she was being suppressed by YouTube and told her family members she “hated” the company opened fire at YouTube’s headquarters in California, wounding three people before taking her own life, police said. Investigators do not believe Nasim Aghdam specifically targeted the three victims when she pulled …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before a congressional committee about the privacy scandal that has rocked the social media company. The House and Energy and Commerce Committee announced Wednesday Zuckerberg will testify on April 11 about the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which obtained data on tens of millions …

It’s been 45 years since men last set foot on the Moon. The year was 1972. Back then, the fastest commercially available microprocessor could handle a maximum of 16 kilobytes of memory. Today the average smartphone can crunch several millions of kilobytes. But huge leaps in computing power have not …

Several Silicon Valley leaders called for increased gun control on Tuesday afternoon after a woman at the headquarters of YouTube shot and wounded three people before taking her own life. Tech companies have largely avoided the topic of gun control in the United States, but they have previously pushed for …

Facebook, expanding its response to people using the platform improperly, said Tuesday that it had deleted hundreds of Russian accounts and pages associated with a “troll factory” indicted by U.S. prosecutors for fake activist and political posts in the 2016 U.S. election campaign. Facebook said many of the deleted articles and pages came from Russia-based Federal …

Autonomous cars should be required to meet standards on their ability to detect potential hazards, and better ways are needed to keep their human drivers ready to assume control, U.S. auto safety and technology experts said after fatal crashes involving Uber Technologies and Tesla vehicles. Automakers and tech companies rely …

Bread and chocolate are staples of the American diet. And a scientific team in California is working hard to make sure the plants they’re made from are as robust as possible. They’re using a recently discovered bacterial gene-editing tool called CRISPR to create more pest-resistant crops. CRISPR is a feature …

The gay dating app Grindr will stop sharing its users’ HIV status with analytics companies. Chief security officer Bryce Case told BuzzFeed News on Monday that the company had decided to stop the sharing of such information in order to allay people’s fears. Analytics firms Localytics and Apptimize were paid …

Feeding the world depends on bountiful harvests, even in the face of changing pests and climate. Scientists are bringing a new tool to the effort, a bacterial gene editing system called CRISPR. The technique works like a molecular pair of scissors that targets a specific location in the DNA to …

Facebook is a company in a hurry.   Since the world learned about the latest customer data controversy at Facebook, the social media network has unleashed a swarm of changes. But it’s unclear whether Facebook’s own reckoning will be enough to satisfy regulators and lawmakers.   “We’ve reached a tipping …

Shares of Amazon.com Inc fell 4 percent on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump again attacked the online retailer over the pricing of its deliveries through the United States Postal Service and promised unspecified changes. “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with …

The National Transportation Safety Board is “unhappy” about Tesla’s decision to release information in a fatal crash investigation involving its Autopilot system. A vehicle using the semi-autonomous system crashed into a concrete lane divider in California last week, killing the driver. Tesla said that data shows the driver did not …

“We’ve made a bunch of mistakes.” “Everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times.” “Not one day goes by when I don’t think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust.”   Sound familiar? It’s Facebook CEO Mark …

Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the world’s ocean beds, yet they are home to a quarter of all marine life on the planet. But they are facing serious challenges that threaten their survival. As Faiza Elmasry tells us, beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean island nation …

Having robots to do the dirty, tedious parts of the job is a dream come true in the construction business. Automation technology developers say robotics are transforming the industry, making it safer, and helping companies take on more projects and finish them faster. Faiza Elmasry has the story. Faith Lapidus …

More than 1 billion people around the world have some sort of disability. Rong Shi of VOA’s Mandarin service toured an exhibit in New York that showcases the latest gadgets and inventions designed to help those with a range of physical, sensory or cognitive abilities lead more independent lives and …

The fallout continues for Facebook over how it handles user data and privacy. U.S. and European lawmakers are calling for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, and regulators have opened investigations. Michelle Quinn reports on how the social media giant is facing a tipping point when it comes to dealing …