Tag: data

A Breakthrough Online Privacy Proposal Hits Congress
Technology

A Breakthrough Online Privacy Proposal Hits Congress

Congress may be closer than ever to passing a comprehensive data privacy framework after key House and Senate committee leaders released a new proposal on Sunday.The bipartisan proposal, titled the American Privacy Rights Act, or APRA, would limit the types of consumer data companies can collect, retain, and use to what they need to operate their services. Users would also be allowed to opt-out of targeted advertising and have the ability to view, correct, delete, and download their data from online services. The proposal would also create a national registry of data brokers, and force those companies to allow users to opt out of having their data sold.“This landmark legislation gives Americans the right to control where their information goes and who can sell it,” Cathy McMorris Rodgers,...
AI and Journalism Need Each Other
Business

AI and Journalism Need Each Other

In the Associated Press newsroom a decade ago, I witnessed the birth of a new era: AI penning news. Before artificial intelligence rose to its current prominence, it wasn’t tech luminaries but journalists at AP who floated the audacious idea of machines taking up editorial roles. As I watched lines of code spin stories, a thought nagged at me: Weren’t stories meant to be earned, not generated?Fast-forward to today, and this once-controversial shift has proved revolutionary for AP and many other organizations. Tackling two monumental challenges in journalism—covering an ever-expanding breadth of news and overcoming the limits of human capacity—AI has reshaped the industry. AI enabled AP to broaden its quarterly financial reporting from 400 companies to 4,000. This had ripple effects: Stanf...
California Dreamin’ of a Government That Actually Works
Health

California Dreamin’ of a Government That Actually Works

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed an affinity for taking on “big, hairy, audacious goals.” But while state and local governments in the Golden State swing for the fences, they too often fail to handle the basics.Sacramento continues to spend billions on a first-in-the-nation high-speed rail line in the Central Valley despite not having a plan to connect the system to the densely populated Bay Area and Los Angeles Basin. Twenty-five years after voters approved the project, zero miles of track have been laid and service isn’t projected to start until the 2030s.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Disturbing Impact of the Cyberattack at the British Library
Entertainment

The Disturbing Impact of the Cyberattack at the British Library

At 9:54 A.M. on October 28th, an apologetic message appeared on the X account of the British Library, in London: “We are currently experiencing technical issues affecting our website. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to resolve it as soon as possible.” It was a Saturday, which, before I had kids, used to be my favorite day at the library. “The B.L.,” as its people know it, is a magnificent, red-brick, vaguely ship-shaped structure a few hundred yards from King’s Cross station, where you can request anything from a quarto by Shakespeare to “The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry” (1934). On Saturdays, the building is quieter and the place has a mellow, productive atmosphere. I used to stop by for a few hours to catch up on work or to waste time, snuffling around for ideas. I first...
Google Mourns Veteran Engineer Luiz André Barroso Who Invented the Modern Data Center
Technology

Google Mourns Veteran Engineer Luiz André Barroso Who Invented the Modern Data Center

Google’s first data center consisted of 40-foot, server-filled shipping containers, which enabled advanced cooling and fewer construction headaches. It opened its own data center campus in Oregon in 2006, resembling the conventional bland, boxy, and massive buildings that now dot the world. But Barroso’s ideas made the insides exceptional.He and his Google colleagues turned away from the then standard approach of centralizing key software in a data center on a few expensive and powerful machines. Instead they began distributing Google’s programs across thousands of cheaper, mid-grade servers. That saved money spent on pricey hardware while also saving energy and allowing software to run more nimbly.Barroso laid out his new philosophy in The Datacenter as a Computer, a book he coauthored w...
Data Is the New Currency
Business

Data Is the New Currency

By Christos A. Makridis and Joel ThayerAmerica’s antitrust policies are stuck in the 1980s. That was when courts and regulators began relying on what’s called the consumer-welfare standard. Articulated in Robert Bork’s 1978 book, “The Antitrust Paradox,” the standard replaced classical antitrust analysis, which focused primarily on promoting competition. Courts and regulators are supposed to take into account a variety of consumer benefits, including lower prices, increased innovation and a better product quality. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8