Clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs have a well-known diversity problem. For decades, drug trials have leaned heavily on white male participants, leaving much unknown about how the drugs would work across a wider population. The demographics of clinical trials have changed in recent years—today, according to a 2021 study in journal Digital Health, clinical trial participants tend to be older, female, non-Hispanic White, and highly educated—leaving broad
Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and more than 1,200 other founders and top research scientists have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on all giant AI experiments to get a better handle on the risks and benefits of the technology and its impact on the world.
The letter notes that powerful AI systems should be developed only after we’re confident that the effects will be positive and the risks manageable.
“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming hu
As state and federal regulators turn up the heat on Google’s massive advertising business, the search giant is moving toward greater transparency about who runs ads on its various platforms.
In a blog post Wednesday, Google explained that its “Ads Transparency Center”—the actual, unambiguous name of a new feature—will offer “a searchable hub of all ads served from verified advertisers.” It will contain an archive of the last 30 days o
Disney has a long history of creating fantastical worlds, but even the Mouse House now seems to be pulling back from the metaverse.
The entertainment giant’s metaverse team has reportedly been eliminated as part of the ongoing round of job cuts at Disney. The Wall Street Journal reports all 50 team members who were developing the company’s metaverse strategies have been let go.
The metaverse was a pet project of former CEO Bob Chapek, who called it “th
In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff presents what is probably the most comprehensive theory of how the tech giants have maximized their profits at the expense of our freedom. By collecting vast amounts of personal data through our online activity, these companies are able to predict and eventually control our behaviors, manipulating our choices in ways that serve their bottom line. This business model, known as “surveillance capitalism,” has been the subject o
Elon Musk has announced plans to make Twitter into an even more insufferable platform for users who refuse to pay for it—this time, by limiting who can have their voices heard.
Musk has announced that the following changes will be enacted on April 15:
- Only people who are subscribed to Twitter Blue will be eligible to appear as recommended tweets in users’ For You feeds.
- Only people who are subscribed to Twitter Blue will be able to vote in polls.
Microsoft first brought generative AI to bear in search, then in its productivity apps, and now it bringing the new technology to its security practice with Security Copilot.
The new offering follows Microsoft’s general strategy of bringing an AI natural language assistant to its main user interfaces. But security may be a dangerous place to deploy AI technology that “hallucinates.”
The Security Copilot is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 large languag
Alibaba Group, a singular force in China’s tech industry, announced on Tuesday that it’s morphing into a holding company that will contain six separate business units, a breakup that’s radical enough by itself, but also rarely seen in China. The move should offer Alibaba some latitude—six necks for regulators to breathe down instead of one—after a rough past two years, while allowing each new unit to be laser-focused on optimizing operations, then raise mone
Even after stepping away from Big Tech for more than two decades, incoming Lyft CEO David Risher feels more than capable of taking over the helm at the rideshare company.
“[At Microsoft], I really got a sense of both how technology can work at scale but also really the energy that can come from competing,” Risher tells Fast Company. “Microsoft was very competitive, and so am I. And so does Lyft have to be. When you’re number two, you’ve got to comp
Apple will now offer a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option for customers shopping with a retailer that accepts Apple Pay. Under the new arrangement, which was announced Tuesday, iPhone and iPad users can take out short-term loans with Apple of between $50 and $1,000, which must be paid back in four installments over the course of six weeks.
In a press release, Apple hinted at a need for buy now, pay later options in these economically turbulent times. “There’s no one-size