Techno-Politics and Tech Culture

If you let your imagination run wild in the world of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU), and you throw in a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), you can come up with several illegal uses for systems such as Alexa Voice Service, Google Home, Siri, and Cortana that will give you pause. Just for fun, let’s play pretend in our world of infinite possibilities. Continue Reading →

You can read the title of this post two ways. If you voted for President-Elect Trump, you can read it as a question followed by an answer. If you voted for Secretary Clinton, you can read it as a question followed by a belief statement. Both sides claim the moral high ground, both sides claim to have "the" answers to our problems and, most importantly, both sides deeply love their vision of what America can become. Based on President-Elect Trump's campaign promises, many fear that hate will become institutionalized on inauguration day. Whether or not you believe this to be true, it is critical for you to understand that the fear is real and people are scared. Continue Reading →

Dani Mathers looked up and saw a woman who aesthetically offended her. She had a thought … a silent, personal thought. A hackneyed, pop-culture meme came to her: “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.” It was so clever! So witty. She lifted her smartphone. It’s a bit catty, but it’s sooo perfect. A quick Snap. It’s funny, right? She was done typing the caption before she finished thinking. Well, mean/funny … but it’s OK. A quick tap. It was over in an instant -- Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers's thought unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Clearly, we now have all the tools we need to use our thoughts to destroy ourselves -- and they are more powerful than you probably imagine. Continue Reading →

Anything that can be hacked will be hacked. Electronic voting machines are no exception. Which raises the question, "Could you hack enough electronic voting machines to influence (rig) the outcome of the upcoming presidential election?" Continue Reading →

Yahoo recently reported the largest hack in history, WikiLeaks is releasing hacked DNC emails at an alarming rate, and according to NBC News "the Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election." Are we on the brink of the First Cyber World War? Continue Reading →

Let me get right to the point. The new iPhone 7 is a fantastic, awesome, incredible, spectacular iteration of the iPhone 6. Great processor (a quad-core, 64-bit A10 Fusion), outstanding rear-facing camera (12 MP), a new wireless chip (W1) to facilitate Bluetooth connectivity, iOS 10, a pressure-sensitive home button, and taptic feedback. Oh, yeah, there's one more thing … [ Continue Reading →

Today, there are over 2 billion ordinary people carrying social network–connected video cameras. Notwithstanding what you're hearing from talking heads on TV, this is not new news. The number of smartphones is racing toward 3 billion, and the trajectory and pace of this technological change are well understood. What is far less understood is the impact ~2 billion social network–connected, video-enabled smartphones will have on how we live our lives in the 21st century. Continue Reading →

The impact of BREXIT is so vast that we may never fully understand its effect. I'm not a political pundit, so I'll leave the politics of BREXIT to others. Technology is the core focus of my advisory practice, and our solutions group builds digital products for some of the world's leading multinational corporations. Through that lens, I offer some thoughts about the near-term impact BREXIT will have on the tech sector and make a few educated guesses at the outcome. Continue Reading →

A federal appeals court upheld the rights of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate broadband (wired and wireless) under Title II of the 1934 Communications act (Title II). Or, to put it another way, regulate the Internet in 2016 like it was the phone system in 1934. This is a big win for the FCC. But what does it mean for you? Continue Reading →

Opining about the future of AI at the recent Brilliant Minds event at Symposium Stockholm, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt rejected warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the dangers of AI, saying, "In the case of Stephen Hawking, although a brilliant man, he's not a computer scientist. Elon is also a brilliant man, though he too is a physicist, not a computer scientist." This absurd dismissal of Musk and Hawking was in response to an absurd question about "the possibility of an artificial superintelligence trying to destroy mankind in the near future." However, in Commander #1's immortal words, "We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger." Continue Reading →