Category: FIRtopics
How big a loss to society would Twitter’s demise be?
As Elon Musk continues remaking Twitter in his own image, I wonder what tomorrow’s Twitter will look like, if it survives the current carnage. The question of Twitter’s survival as a going concern isn’t a far-fetched point given the extraordinary events that have happened since Musk acquired the social network in October. The chaos in recent weeks has led to the exodus of many users, although only a trickle at the moment. We’ve seen the dismissal of the majority of… Read the rest →
Topics for FIR 279
My topics for discussion with Shel in For Immediate Release 279, our monthly long-form podcast episode for August 2022, published on August 22, 2022: What’s New in the 2022 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Every year, IT industry analysts Gartner publishes their Hypecycle for Emerging Technologies. This report is unique among Gartner Hype Cycles because it identifies key insights from more than 2,000 technologies and applied frameworks that Gartner profiles each year into a succinct set of “must-know” emerging tech and trends.… Read the rest →
Topics for FIR 270
My topics for discussion with Shel in For Immediate Release 270, our monthly long-form podcast episode for July 2022, published on July 18, 2022: The Uber Files The Uber Files are a leaked database of Uber’s activities in about 40 countries that reveals how Uber stormed into markets around the world, and how it used stealth technology and evasive practices to thwart regulators and law enforcement in at least six countries […] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign https://www.icij.org/investigations/uber-files/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-uber-files/ https://twitter.com/ICIJorg/status/1546164602236551168 https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-history-of-lawbreaking-lobbying-and-exploiting-violence-against-drivers/ https://www.thestreet.com/investing/three-words-at-the-heart-of-uber-scandal https://newsroom.cipr.co.uk/uber-leaks-reveal-easily-exploitable-lobbying-rules/ To the… Read the rest →
Topics for FIR 263
My topics for discussion with Shel in For Immediate Release 263, our monthly long-form podcast episode for June 2022, published on June 20, 2022: Google has not created sentient AI — yet The suspension of a Google engineer called Blake Lemoine, who claimed a computer chatbot he was working on had become sentient and was thinking and reasoning like a human being, has stimulated a lot of discussion over the past week or so. […] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2022/06/dangerous-fallacy-sentient-ai https://www.wired.com/story/blake-lemoine-google-lamda-ai-bigotry/ https://bigthink.com/the-future/google-sentient-ai/… Read the rest →
Discussion topics for FIR podcast 257
My topics for discussion with Shel in the For Immediate Release monthly podcast episode 257 for May 2022, published on May 23, 2022: The death of ‘mandatory fun’ in the office If you’re an adult being forced to attend a team-building exercise, go to a post-work happy hour or celebrate in a conference room with your colleagues lest you be seen as ‘not a team player’, they’re mostly not ‘fun.’ The pandemic put an end to required birthday cupcakes, team… Read the rest →