From Siri to Alexa to Cortana, we’re talking to virtual assistants more than ever before. They can still have trouble understanding simple commands to play music or look up directions, though, especially in noisy places. Rather than focusing on cleaning up the …Continue reading
Google’s Android Is Mega Popular, but It’s Got a Big Problem
Since it was first rolled out on a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard-wielding smartphone back in 2008, Google’s Android operating system has grown into the most widely used mobile OS. Today, it runs on well over a billion phones made by a variety of …Continue reading
Facebook Plans to Boost Its Translations Using Neural Networks This Year
Facebook is working to get significantly better at automatically translating updates from friends not written in your native language. The social network plans to roll out a new translation system later this year. It is based on artificial neural networks, an approach …Continue reading
Mobile Phone Records Reveal Largest Gathering in the History of Humanity
Mobile phones have revolutionized the way scientists study human behavior, allowing them to watch people on a scale that has never been previously imagined. This work has revealed patterns of sleep, mating strategies, and commuting behaviors on huge scales. It has even …Continue reading
Should We Let Internet Companies Define How We Express Ourselves?
Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft have agreed to a “code of conduct” (PDF) in European Union countries that requires the Internet giants to take down hate speech within 24 hours of posting on their platforms. It’s the latest controversial move in what …Continue reading
Magic Leap’s Latest Surprise: It’s Working on Robots
A two-year government study has found a small increase in two types of cancer in male rats exposed to the kind of radiation that cell phones emit. Given the ubiquity of cell-phone usage, the implications of the findings are substantial, if they …Continue reading
A Connection between Cell Phones and Cancer Has Been Found. Should We Be Worried?
Could secretive augmented reality startup Magic Leap be working on artificial intelligence for robotics, too? A brief mention in a lawsuit the company filed this week against two former employees indicates as much. In the suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court …Continue reading
Google Has a Plan to Kill Off Passwords
Is it finally the beginning of the end for passwords? From our laptops to our bank accounts to e-mail, social media accounts, and myriad other online services, passwords ostensibly protect almost every aspect of the lives we lead online. And yet they …Continue reading
These Headphones Know Your Ears Better than You Do
Kyle Slater’s headphones look a little weird. They’re big, like a pair of Beats with large cups that cover his ears, yet they also have earbuds in the middle of each cup that fit into his ear canals. They also work differently …Continue reading
How WeChat Is Extending China’s School Days Well into the Night
On a recent Thursday evening, Zhang Zehao, a seventh grader in Tianjin, China, braced himself for extra math assignments posted by his teacher on WeChat, a messaging app. At 7 p.m., his mother received a picture on her phone: a piece of …Continue reading