Senate advances bills that boost privacy and safety for kids

Jul 26, 2024
The legislation would force tech companies to do more to prevent harm. Subscribe to get the "Make Me Smart" newsletter every Friday!
Getty Images

Tech and media companies are ditching user totals from their growth reports. Why now?

Jul 23, 2024
Instead, companies are opting to report other metrics of growth.
Some experts believe media companies are no longer reporting user totals to avoid potential doubt for future company growth.
Anna Barclay/Getty Images

Silicon Valley is feeling the AI boom on the ground

Jul 22, 2024
Real estate prices are getting unreal, thanks to the ripples of Nvidia's success.
San Francisco and much of the Bay Area real estate market are seeing a wave of luxury buying by tech workers who are cashing in their lucrative stock holdings.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Why tech billionaires are now flocking to Donald Trump

Jul 19, 2024
The flood of big tech names coming out publicly for Trump and the GOP is a sharp departure from Silicon Valley’s past political practices.
Support for Republicans from figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel comes in part from a strong libertarian, hands-off-my-business ideology, experts say.
Chip Somodevilla/ Getty Images

A tour of "emotionally intelligent" AI

Jul 16, 2024
Creators say the new AI is capable of inferring users' emotions, but some experts are wary of the dangers of adaptive AI.
Hume AI believes its AI voice product, which can recognize 48 human emotions, could be put to use as a personalized virtual assistant.
Ilya Lukichev/Getty Images

The precision agriculture revolution is coming, just slowly

Jul 4, 2024
Since the 1990s, precision agriculture has promised to revolutionize farming, by giving growers granular information about what’s happening with the crops in their fields and new technology to actually put that data to good use. But the new developments in precision ag have yet to fully transform farming.
Electrical engineer Cody Hyman prepares for a test of Impossible Sensing’s prototype soil sensor. The machine is designed to be mounted to the back of a planter and can measure soil composition in real time using a powerful laser.
Eric Schmid/STLPR

When an accessibility mapping app went viral, success came with a cost

Jun 11, 2024
Roll Mobility, an app for mapping accessibility infrastructure and linking disabled communities, went viral. Now the team needs to raise funds.
A viral video boosted the popularity of an accessibility app called Roll Mobility. Now the company needs to raise funds to build its operation, said co-founder Joe Foster.
Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)

For public good, not for profit.

Zoom cashiers may signal a new era of digital offshoring and remote work

May 27, 2024
With advancements in tech and AI, outsourcing looks different now.
Cashiers of the future may actually be taking your order from thousands of miles away.
Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images

Texas' high tech sector buzzes along amid industry downturn

May 22, 2024
High tech represents nearly 5% of state GDP and more than 9% of employment. What makes the state's sector so resilient?
Charging stations at Tesla's corporate headquarters in Austin. High tech jobs have flourished around Austin, thanks to investments from companies like Tesla.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

AI likely to make voice assistants smarter

Aug 2, 2023
Google aims to “supercharge” Google Assistant with the same tech that underlies ChatGPT, which could boost communication.
Programs like Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri still have problems understanding exactly what people say, but artificial intelligence may improve their functionality.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images