Even if you’ve never heard of Steve Wilhite, the amount of time you’ve spent staring at computer graphics powered by technology he created may be incalculable. Wilhite, who died from complications of COVID-19 at age 74 on March 14, is the man who gave us a graphics file type called Graphics Interchange Format, better known as GIF. Used today mostly to display brief, silent loops of animation or far-from-HD video, GIFs are the internet’s visual lingua franca—and so fam
The U.S. has ceded a vast majority of semiconductor manufacturing to fabricators in Asia, a fact that’s grown more troubling as China emerges as a near-peer rival and the global chip shortage lingers on. The chip industry was invented in the United States, by Silicon Valley companies such as Intel. In 1990 almost 40% of the world’s semiconductors were produced in the U.S. Today, 80% of chip production occurs in Asia; only 12% are made in the U.S., half of which comes from Intel. Ch
Google announced on Thursday three new health projects aimed at showcasing its artificial intelligence prowess. The most bullish among them: a partnership with Northwestern Memorial Hospital to use artificial intelligence to make ultrasounds more accessible—a development Google claims would halve the maternal mortality rate. All three of Google’s new projects highlight how the company’s strength, organizing information, can play a role in health care. In the case of maternal
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Ask Patreon CEO Jack Conte about the momentum the creator economy has seen lately and you’ll get an emphatic “Hallelujah!” “Finally, everybody seems to be excited about compensating creative people what they’re worth instead of the minimum amount that tech companies can get away with,” Conte says in the l
Intel and its CEO Pat Gelsinger have been quite busy over the past few weeks—from Gelsinger being a guest at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union and being noted for Intel’s $20 billion investment in a factory in Ohio, to the company’s investment of 80 billion euros (upward of $88 billion) in rejuvenating the European supply chain, to its $100 million commitment to semiconductor education and research. While Gelsinger has had plenty of opportunity to discuss
Thanks to social media tools like Instagram and TikTok, millions of people have grown adept at entertainingly telling stories online with a few taps of their phones. The ease with which people can create engaging content with these tools helped inspire a company called Tome, which just launched a new product designed for workplace communication and presentations after securing $32 million in financing from investors including Greylock Partners and Coatue Ventures. More than just an improve
No movie recommendation is as much a letdown as a bad horror movie recommendation. Even if it’s not so bad that it packs the betrayal punch of a bad blind date setup—you thought I’d like that?—even if it just bores, is too gory, isn’t gory enough, is cheesy, isn’t cheesy enough. Whatever it is or isn’t, it feels like a special kind of being led astray. It feels personal. Somewhere in the endless pursuit of worthy suggestions—and hard-core f
A new blockchain-based internet that abhors huge tech platforms, embraces digital currencies, and lets individuals control their data and identity sounds like a lovely idea. But a growing chorus of skeptics are saying that Web3–the term used to sum up these concepts–is at best highly aspirational and at worst a flat-out scam. Some of these critics express their doubts on Substack, or in YouTube rants, or on company blogs. Others voice their skepticism with their wallets, short
Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan will be departing the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding company at the end of March, the company announced Tuesday. Sean Leow, the company’s chief operating officer, will be interim CEO while Kickstarter’s board searches for a permanent replacement. Hasan, who is also a designer and illustrator, says the decision to leave came after a lot of “personal reflection” around his own creative work and his desire to spend more time with his family (he ha
The White House is sounding the alarm on the risk that private companies face of Kremlin-backed cyberattacks. “Warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian Government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks,” President Biden said in a statement on Monday. “It’s part of Russia’s playbook.” Anne Neuberger, Biden’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, added that the administration is witnessing