Emerging Tech
Foreign-Influence Operation
It’s disturbing how easily Internet Research Agency accounts blended into America’s online life.
Digital Government
What Sundar Pichai Couldn’t Explain to Congress
Google’s CEO struggled to explain the reality of his company’s power to a House committee convinced of a liberal conspiracy.
Emerging Tech
Finally, the Self-Driving Car
Google’s sister company Waymo built the self-driving car. Now it needs to bring it to life.
Emerging Tech
When the Tech Mythology Collapses
The industry’s fall from grace may feel unprecedented, but we have a model for what happens when a beloved industry fails us.
Emerging Tech
Iranian Propaganda Targeted Americans With Tom Hanks
It’s yet another attempt by a government to use Facebook to sow discord in the United States.
Digital Government
Big Tech's Newest Experiment in Criminal-Justice Reform
Unicorn startup Slack is launching an apprenticeship program for formerly incarcerated people. But will the industry ever hire from the inside en masse?
Emerging Tech
Waymo’s Robot Cars, and the Humans Who Tend to Them
People are always the hack that make automated systems work.
Digital Government
Wikipedia, the Last Bastion of Shared Reality
The culture wars are coming for the best utopian project of the early internet. Can it survive the informational anarchy that’s disrupted the rest of media?
Digital Government
Tech’s Fractal Irresponsibility Problem
Each new scandal reflects in miniature the shape of the industry’s big problems.
Digital Government
Why Facebook Wants to Give You the Benefit of the Doubt
Mark Zuckerberg’s remarks about Holocaust denial once again showed Facebook’s optimism about human nature.
Digital Government
Civic Tech in a Time of Technopessimism
Since 2016, the technology industry has been looking for answers. Code for America might have one.
Artificial Intelligence
Uber’s Self-Driving Car Didn’t Malfunction, It Was Just Bad
There were no software glitches or sensor breakdowns that led to a fatal crash, merely poor object recognition, emergency planning, system design, testing methodology, and human operation.
Digital Government
The Most Important Exchange of the Zuckerberg Hearing
The Facebook CEO’s defense of data collection is slipperier than it seems.
Emerging Tech
The Most Important Self-Driving Car Announcement Yet
Autonomous vehicles will transform urban life by 2020, if Waymo’s time line is correct.
Emerging Tech
Bitcoin Mining Turns Electricity Into Money
A close-up portrait of bitcoin miners in eastern Washington reveals the real hustle at the heart of cryptocurrencies.
Emerging Tech
Drone Swarms Are Going to Be Terrifying and Hard to Stop
“Now the improvised explosive devices will find our warfighters."
Cybersecurity
Russia's Troll Operation Was Not That Sophisticated
“If the Internet Research Agency were a start-up media company, they probably would not be picking up a fresh round of venture capital.”
Emerging Tech
Could Self-Driving Trucks Be Good for Truckers?
That’s what a new study from Uber’s self-driving-truck team says, and a variety of trucking experts think they might be right.
Digital Government
8 Overly Confident, Mostly Pessimistic Predictions About Tech in 2018
The bankification of Big Tech, a strange profusion of wheeled vehicles, and more predictions about the year to come.
Emerging Tech
The People Who Read Your Airline Tweets
“There are a lot of whiners, but the good thing is we help the whiners, too.”
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