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PARIS, France (AFP) — Facebook misidentified tens of thousands of advertisements flagged under its political ads policy, according to a study released Thursday, which warned that the failure could lead to political manipulation. Researchers at Belgium’s KU Leuven university and New York University examined 33.8 million Facebook ads that ran on the social media site between July 2020 and February 2021. “This is the first known study to quantify the performance of Facebook’s political ad […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – Online food delivery platform Uber Eats announced on Tuesday it will quit Hong Kong at the end of 2021, ending five years of a battle for a share of the competitive food delivery market. Uber announced the “difficult decision” in an online statement, which gave no reason for why it was winding down operations. The company said it would now redouble its commitment to its ride-sharing in Hong Kong, a […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Seoul has started trialling pint-sized robots as teaching aids in kindergartens — a pilot project the city government said would help prepare the next generation for a hi-tech future. The “Alpha Mini” is just 24.5 centimetres tall and can dance, lead sing-a-longs, recite stories and even teach kung-fu moves as children mimic its push-ups and one-legged balances. “The robots help with the kids’ creativity,” teacher Byun Seo-yeon told AFP during […]
by Andrew BEATTY Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Wednesday announced measures to ring-fence dozens of sensitive technologies from foreign interference, stepping up efforts to safeguard against “national security risks” from China and others. Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a list of 63 “critical technologies” to be promoted and protected at an online forum in Sydney — a step toward limiting what government, industry and universities can and cannot share with […]
by Alexandra Vardi Agence France-Presse HAIFA, Israel (AFP) – As she walked her dog Luna near her northern Israel town, Elishya Ben Meir collected litter that had been reported through a new app which turns garbage into goods. For each bag she fills in the valley near her home, she receives around 10 “Clean Coins”, a virtual currency that can be redeemed for goods from participating businesses. The green scheme aims to encourage citizens to […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — An original Apple computer, hand-built by company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak 45 years ago, sold for $400,000 at auction in the United States on Tuesday. The functioning Apple-1, the great-great-grandfather of today’s sleek chrome-and-glass Macbooks, had been expected to fetch up to $600,000 when it went under the hammer in California. The so-called “Chaffey College” Apple-1 is one of only 200 made by Jobs and Wozniak at […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Pentagon’s top general said Wednesday that China’s recent test of an earth-circling hypersonic missile was akin to the Soviet Union’s stunning launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, which sparked the superpowers’ space race. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed for the first time the Chinese test of a nuclear-capable missile that would be very difficult to defend against. “What we saw was […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Google announced Thursday it will lower a fee in its app store as pressure mounts on tech giants to loosen their grip over their online marketplaces. The commission on subscriptions taken by Google Play will be lopped in half to 15 percent starting in January, vice president of product management Sameer Samat said in a blog post. Currently Google gets a 30 percent cut for the first year of […]
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Some 38 million records stored on a Microsoft service, including private information, were mistakenly left exposed this year, security firm UpGuard said Monday. The data, including names, addresses, financial information and Covid-19 vaccination statuses, was made vulnerable — but not compromised — before the problem was resolved, according to the digital security company’s investigation. Among the 47 affected organizations were American Airlines, Ford, JB Hunt and public agencies such […]
After dominating the electric vehicle market and throwing his hat into the billionaire space race, Tesla boss Elon Musk announced the latest frontier he’s aiming to conquer: humanoid robots. The irascible entrepreneur said Thursday he would have an initial prototype of an androgynous “Tesla Bot” by next year. Based on the same technology as the company’s semi-autonomous vehicles, the robot will be able to perform basic repetitive tasks with the aim of eliminating the need […]
LONAVLA, India (AFP) — Indian start-up Mylab Discovery Solutions hopes that its inexpensive Covid-19 home test kit — the country’s first — will help the massive South Asian nation better track the pandemic’s spread among its 1.3-billion people. CoviSelf was launched earlier this month and is the first home testing kit to be approved in India, which is slowly emerging from a brutal second wave that overwhelmed its hospitals and crematoriums, with almost 30 million […]
by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Paralyzed from the neck down, the man stares intently at a screen. As he imagines handwriting letters, they appear before him as typed text thanks to a new brain implant. The 65-year-old is “typing” at a speed similar to his peers tapping on a smartphone, using a device that could one day help paralyzed people communicate quickly and easily. The research could benefit people […]
