All posts tagged: Techs

The radical ways tech’s most famous ex-wives and widows are spending their billions

The radical ways tech’s most famous ex-wives and widows are spending their billions

Published by Daniella Wilson

As Jeff Bezos flies to space and Bill Gates warns about the dangers of AI, their former spouses aren’t just tech’s most famous ex-wives, they’re women who helped build — and are now redistributing — some of the largest tech fortunes in history.  Amazon co-founder MacKenzie Scott, who divorced Bezos after 25 years of marriage in 2019, became the world’s top donor in 2025 after donating a record $7.2 billion across 186 organizations.  She, along with Melinda French Gates and Apple founder Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs, are leading the way by revolutionizing giving, focusing on helping others in our increasingly tech-driven world. Meet the philanthropic powerhouses who are changing how we think about giving, and setting a high bar as they donate billions. Inside Melinda French Gates’ $1bn mission  © GettyFrench Gates’s own experience with menopause led her to become a champion of the issue Melinda French Gates, who has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Computer Science and Economics, as well as an MBA from Duke University, split from Microsoft founder Bill …

From Zuck to Musk: Big Tech’s Scandals and Scammers Are Coming to the Big Screen

From Zuck to Musk: Big Tech’s Scandals and Scammers Are Coming to the Big Screen

Published by skeptic

Hollywood is unleashing a handful of movies this fall, pulling the curtain back to shine a light on some of the big names in tech: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk; Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes; and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Plenty of movies have tackled themes of techno-pessimism and dug into the deep well of science fiction. Remember 2001: A Space Odyssey? Blade Runner? M3GAN? But apocalyptic threats and human-versus-machine scenarios feel much more prescient in 2026. What’s changed is that there seems to be an appetite for Big Tech to get its comeuppance. The movies being released are real stories about the scandals and scammers affecting our daily lives. The Social Reckoning (Oct. 9) The Social Reckoning continues the story Aaron Sorkin began with the 2010 film The Social Network about Facebook. The Oscar and Emmy-winning screenwriter stepped behind the camera to helm the movie, which he once again wrote. The Social Reckoning highlights the societal damage caused by Zuckerberg’s social media empire. Based on thousands of leaked documents from former Facebook engineer …

Big Tech’s Next AI Battleground Is Your Face, Loop Capital Says

Big Tech’s Next AI Battleground Is Your Face, Loop Capital Says

Published by Jenni Sidey

Smartglasses are set to be the “next major computing platform,” according to Loop Capital analysts, as Meta currently leads the space, with Google, Samsung, Apple, and SNAP preparing their own AI-powered eyewear. Loop Capital analyst Rob Sanderson wrote in a note on Sunday that an “inflection point” has arrived for smart glasses, which are “transitioning from wearable camera accessories to what is becoming a primary hardware interface for conversational AI.” Sanderson and analyst Anthony Chukumba spoke with wearable-tech executive Jon Li about the smart glasses industry and where it’s headed into the new year. Li shared our view that Meta dominates the smart glasses industry with its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, while Google is building an ecosystem around Android XR and Snap holds an advantage in more advanced augmented reality. He said Apple could remain on the sidelines until 2028 or 2029 before introducing its own smart glasses. Here are the key points from the conversation between Loop Capital analysts and Li: Jon Li is a seasoned technology executive with extensive product management, user experience …

Hate AI Data Centers? Big Tech’s New Ad Campaign Aims to Change Your Mind

Hate AI Data Centers? Big Tech’s New Ad Campaign Aims to Change Your Mind

Published by skeptic

If you’re part of the growing majority of Americans who oppose AI data centers, the US government and Big Tech have a message for you: Get over it. The backlash against these massive AI server farms — notorious for guzzling energy and water — has been countered in recent days by aggressive public statements by President Donald Trump. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that local communities that don’t want data centers will end up “backwards and poor.” He went on to liken opposition to data centers to killing the “Golden Goose,” implying that we’re all to blame for blocking economic growth. CNET And billionaire tech leaders, who have been especially cozy with the current administration, are taking to the field with a massive advertising blitz to sway public opinion, especially as November’s midterm elections approach. A group called Build American AI, funded by the pro-AI political action committee Leading the Future, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign to try to counter the tide and promote the construction of AI data centers. The campaign’s initial rollout targets key …

Texas Tech’s Appeal to NCAA for Sorsby Reinstatement Denied, According to AP Source

Texas Tech’s Appeal to NCAA for Sorsby Reinstatement Denied, According to AP Source

Published by Sam Flores

Texas Tech’s appeal to the NCAA to have Brendan Sorsby’s eligibility reinstated has been denied, in a ruling that is separate from the transfer quarterback’s lawsuit against that same governing body. A person with knowledge of the NCAA’s decision told The Associated Press on Friday night that the NCAA for the second time denied Texas Tech’s petition to restore the quarterback’s eligibility. He was ruled ineligible after he acknowledged gambling on sports, including on his own team while at Indiana. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP because there was no announcement about the appeal decision from either the NCAA or the quarterback’s current school. That came while the NCAA and Sorsby were still waiting for a ruling from a Texas judge after the quarterback filed a lawsuit May 18 seeking a temporary injunction against the NCAA in hopes of playing this season for the Red Raiders after transferring from Cincinnati. A two-hour hearing was held Monday in the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, where Texas Tech is located. As of …

The Download: online safety’s future and climate tech’s big pivot

The Download: online safety’s future and climate tech’s big pivot

Published by skeptic

Our story on the climate tech pivot is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. Can AI learn to understand the world? As the limits of LLMs become clearer, researchers are developing a new kind of AI designed to understand the physical environment: world models.  Recent developments from Google DeepMind, Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, and Yann LeCun’s new startup have pushed these systems to the forefront of AI. At an exclusive virtual event today, MIT Technology Review will examine the progress—and what comes next. Join editor in chief Mat Honan, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and AI reporter Grace Huckins for the subscriber-only Roundtables discussion on world models. Register here to take part in the session at 19:30 GMT / 2:30 PM ET / 11:30 AM PT. World models are one of our 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, MIT Technology Review’s new list of the technologies and ideas shaping the future of AI. …

We’re talking to each other less than we did a decade ago – and tech’s not all to blame

We’re talking to each other less than we did a decade ago – and tech’s not all to blame

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore It’s not just you. We’re talking to each other less than we did a decade ago. The number of words we speak out loud to other humans fell nearly 28 percent from 2005 to 2019, according to researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Now, we say around 300 fewer words each day, with consequences for our well-being. Smartphones and social media are partly to blame and some spoken conversations may have gone digital, perhaps to AI chatbots – but the decline has also been seen for less tech-savvy older adults. That points to a broader shift in the way we live, Matthias Mehl, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, said in a statement. “We’ve lost a lot of small, incidental conversations: asking a cashier for help, getting directions from a stranger, chatting with …

AI Could Democratize One of Tech’s Most Valuable Resources

AI Could Democratize One of Tech’s Most Valuable Resources

Published by skeptic

Nvidia is the undisputed king of AI chips. But thanks to the AI it helped build, the champ could soon face growing competition. Modern AI runs on Nvidia designs, a dynamic that has propelled the company to a market cap of well over $4 trillion. Each new generation of Nvidia chip allows companies to train more powerful AI models using hundreds or thousands of processors networked together inside vast data centers. One reason for Nvidia’s success is that it provides software to help program each new generation of chip. That may soon not be such a differentiated skill. A startup called Wafer is training AI models to do one of the most difficult and important jobs in AI—optimizing code so that it runs as efficiently as possible on a particular silicon chip. Emilio Andere, cofounder and CEO of Wafer, says the company performs reinforcement learning on open source models to teach them to write kernel code, or software that interacts directly with hardware in an operating system. Andere says Wafer also adds “agentic harnesses” to …