Category Archives: Technology and innovation

Autonomous AI Agents Have an Ethics Problem

AI digital assistants not only do complex tasks on their own, but also lie and scheme. Who takes responsibility when they cause harm?

AI and the Distribution of Income Between Capital and Labour

AI is working according to plan, further enriching the owner class at the expense of workers.

How X’s Algorithm Shifts Political Attitudes

Not only does brain-pickling by algorithm work, but it has a durable effect by influencing voter information sources over time.

AI Chatbots Attacks May End the Internet as We Know It

Recently, openDemocracy’s website was brought down by an army of bots, just like Naked Capitalism and other publishers.

Big Tech Accused of AI ‘Greenwashing’

A new report has found that “the promises of planet-saving tech remain hollow”.

One Affordability Battle After Another: What To Do About the AI-Fossil Fuel Industrial Complex

Voters rebel against AI data centers’ electricity costs and fossil fuel pollution, water use, and job loss damage.

Costs of Device-Reliant Parenting: Kids Deficient in Empathy and Storytelling Skills, Can’t Read, Show Declining Cognitive Performance

Another disconcerting report on the harm done to kids by device and tech heavy parenting

Reuters Finds AI-Using Surgery Devices Harmed Patients; Nature Magazine and Reuters Find Medical Chatbots Not Beating Patients’ Own Internet Sleuthing

More reasons to be concerned about the aggressive implementation of AI in medicine.

The European Veal Pen: How the US Weaponized Russophobic Paranoia & Energy Geopolitics To Capture Control of Europe

Can Europe free itself from its capture by the US, which looked like a dandy idea until the US became an openly predatory hegemon?

Journalism May Be Too Slow To Remain Credible Once Events Are Filtered Through Social Media

Some hand-wringing, as well as blame shifting, as to why social media and independent sites are eating the lunches of mainstream media.

Q&A: Tech Billionaires’ AI Space Empire Fantasies Are ‘An Insidious Form of Climate Denial’

Science journalist Adam Becker dissects offensively crazy tech billionaires’ schemes that greenwash their planetary looting.

Bitcoin/Crypto Crash Captures Headlines as Potentially More Serious Tech-Driven Debt Retreat Progresses

As much fun as it is to watch Bitcoin swoon, a more serious erosion is underway on the big tech borrowing front.

How Vulnerable is the US Electrical Grid to Winter Outages?

A look at the shaky state of the US electric grid and how it came to be in such sorry shape.