This week, VentureBeat launched a quarterly magazine. Like the AI Weekly, the special issue gives our editorial team a chance to reflect on important transformative technology influencing business, technology, and society. The first issue focuses on the relationship between power and AI. Power can shape AI, from how we define ethical use of artificial intelligence […]
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I’ve loved NFC technology for almost as long as I’ve known about it, and it’s been around for quite some time. Not only is the Near-Field Communications concept brilliant — tiny radio antennas transfer small quantities of data at sub-1.5-inch distances — but the execution has also been impressive: Today, NFC enables phones to make […]
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I’m impressed by Apple’s new Research app for the iPhone and Apple Watch. It’s beautifully designed, ambitious in scope, and so intimately tied into the iOS and watchOS operating systems that it could serve as a singular example of Apple’s “seamless integration of hardware, software, and services.” But after digging into the Research app, I […]
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GM’s Cruise announced this past June that it would postpone plans for a driverless taxi service, which it previously said would debut in 2019. But the setback hasn’t discouraged its over 1,000 staffers from iterating toward a public launch. In fact, work on the underlying systems and infrastructure has accelerated in the intervening months, according […]
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When it comes to AI’s role in making online content, Kristin Tynski, VP of digital marketing firm Fractl, sees an opportunity to boost creativity. But a recent experiment in AI-generated content left her a bit shaken. Using publicly available AI tools and about an hour of her time, Tynski created a website that includes 30 […]
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My name is John. My name is John Connor, and I live at 19,828 Almond Avenue, Los Angeles. My name is John Connor, I live at 19,828 Almond Avenue, Los Angeles, and my California police record J-66455705 lists my supposedly expunged juvenile convictions for vandalism, trespassing, and shoplifting. Which of these levels of personal detail […]
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Immersive media has the potential to disrupt the journalism landscape in profound new ways. While technical issues still limit, ambitious journalists are using all available platforms to get a glimpse of the storytelling media of the future. As immersive media increases in reach and functionality, 3D, AR, and VR platforms continue to further define how […]
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We learned this week that the Department of Defense is using facial recognition at scale, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he believes China is selling lethal autonomous drones. Amid all that, you may have missed Joint AI Center (JAIC) director Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan — who is charged by the Pentagon with modernizing […]
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Microsoft officially entered the robotic process automation (RPA) marketplace this week with some major changes to its Power Platform. It’s not the first incumbent enterprise software vendors to feel the need to have a product in this category (SAP purchased French RPA vendor Contextor late last year), and it won’t be the last. We should […]
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At VentureBeat, there’s a constant internal conversation about how we can keep finding better ways to meet our mission of covering transformative technology. “AI” is usually the key word in those conversations, which increasingly revolve around issues and topics that require deeper thought, greater attention, and accountability from the Fourth Estate. To that end, we’re […]
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Throughout 2019, the 5G chip business has effectively been Qualcomm’s to lose — between its Snapdragon 855-series processors and its X50/X55 modems, Qualcomm won the business of almost every company interested in producing a 5G consumer device. But with 2020 just around the corner, rivals Samsung and Mediatek have emerged as top 5G chip alternatives […]
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Europe’s Competition Commissioner said that while she remained optimistic about the role of technology in society, its biggest companies must do more to curb their abusive behavior or face greater regulation. However, she was reluctant to back calls for breaking them up out of fear for the unintended consequences such a move could cause. “From […]
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Geospatial data packs a wealth of insights, but they’re often concealed beneath the surface. Particularly elusive are those arising from synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), a form of satellite radar data that is used to create two-dimensional or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects. SAR comes from disparate satellites strewn throughout orbit that alone aren’t capable of revealing much. […]
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WhatsApp Business is launching a new way for small business owners to leverage the app to share products in conversations. Catalog allows users to share a photo, price, description, and link in order to make a purchase or see more. The Catalog is available today for Android and iPhone smartphone users in Brazil, Germany, India, […]
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Home decor startup Spruce Up has launched an updated ecommerce platform that leverages machine learning to recommend goods to homeowners. Using what it touts as a proprietary “style genome” trained by professional designers, Spruce Up is looking to automate a process that would typically require some back-and-forth interactions between the customer and a human stylist. […]
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Fastly announced today that its Compute@Edge service is available in beta to let developers test enhanced features designed to make edge computing easier and more efficient. The startup described the service as a “powerful new language-agnostic compute environment” that should allow developers to create applications that run closer to users in a way that is […]
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Apple rumors are perennially popular for two major reasons: First, the company’s actual announcements are so few and far between that only “what’s next?” speculation keeps its fans excited year-round. Second, the company is famously iterative, rarely entering a new product category without years of research and a multi-year “what’s next?” product pipeline in mind, constantly […]
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The use of computer vision technologies to boost machine learning continues to accelerate, driven by optimism that classifying huge volumes of images will unleash all sorts of new applications and forms of autonomy. But there’s a darker side to this transformation: These learning systems remain remarkably easy to fool using so-called “adversarial attacks.” Even worse […]
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On November 1, Apple launched its much anticipated streaming service aptly named Apple TV+. The service enters a competitive consumer landscape with offerings from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and HBO already clamoring for subscribers. This is in addition to a packed line-up of new entrants slated to hit the market with Disney’s offering […]
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Huawei may have just gotten the first official sign that its global smartphone business could be rescued from the quagmire. The Chinese tech titan and its affiliates have been on a trade blacklist since May, preventing it from doing business with U.S. companies including Google, which is no longer able to provide Huawei devices with […]
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