Nation Jun 11 Microsoft joins Amazon, IBM in pausing face scans for police Microsoft has become the third big tech company this week to say it won’t sell its facial recognition software to police, following similar moves by Amazon and IBM.
Nation Jun 11 Amazon bans police use of face recognition technology for a year Amazon banned police use of its face-recognition technology for a year, making it the latest tech giant to step back from law-enforcement use of systems that have faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin.
Nation May 19 Google says it won’t build AI tools for oil and gas drillers Google says it will no longer build custom artificial intelligence tools for speeding up oil and gas extraction, separating itself from cloud computing rivals Microsoft and Amazon.
Nation May 18 Tech-assisted COVID-19 tracking is having some issues Harnessing today's technology to the task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be more complicated than it first appeared.
Health May 05 COVID-19 tracing apps come with privacy trade-offs Many governments eager to reopen their societies are starting to bet on smartphone apps to help stanch the coronavirus pandemic.
World Mar 27 Microsoft divests from Israeli facial-recognition startup Microsoft says it is pulling its investments from a controversial facial-recognition startup that scans faces at Israeli military checkpoints.
Science Feb 24 Pentagon adopts new ethical principles for using AI in war The new principles call for people to "exercise appropriate levels of judgment and care" when deploying and using AI systems, such as those that scan aerial imagery to look for targets. But the principles fall short of stronger restrictions favored…
Health Feb 20 Can AI flag disease outbreaks faster than humans? Not quite The first public alert outside China about the novel coronavirus came on Dec. 30 from the automated HealthMap system at Boston Children's Hospital.
Economy Feb 10 Amazon wants to question Trump over loss of military contract The Pentagon awarded the cloud computing project to Microsoft in October. Amazon later sued, arguing that Trump's interference and bias against the company harmed Amazon's chances of winning.
Economy Feb 05 YouTube, Venmo demand AI firm stop taking facial data from sites The companies have been sending cease-and-desist letters to New York-based Clearview AI, which works with law enforcement agencies.