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Sir Tim Berners-Lee Wants to Fix the Web with New Startup

Charlotte Henry ·

Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor or the World Wide Web, has a new, a project. Called Inrupt, it wants to develop a new web structure to put people back in control of their data. Data would be stored on an individual’s “pod” instead of a company’s server. Wired spoke to Sir Tim about the project.

Inrupt aims to drive the development of the Solid platform and transform it from an innovative idea to a viable platform for businesses and consumers. “My group in the CSAIL [Computer Sciences and Artifical Intelligence Laboratory] Lab at MIT had been working on Solid for some years,” Berners-Lee says. “The initial goal of Inrupt is to add the energy and resources of a startup to the open-source efforts to make the Solid movement happen.”

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This AI Tool Scares the Crap Out of Elon Musk

Andrew Orr ·

OpenAI, an AI research institute cofounded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, built an AI text generator that its creators worry is dangerous.

Jack Clark, policy director at OpenAI, says that example shows how technology like this might shake up the processes behind online disinformation or trolling, some of which already use some form of automation. “As costs of producing text fall, we may see behaviors of bad actors alter,” he says.

Based on the examples I think it’s safe to say this AI would pass the Turing Test.

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Allstate's iCracked Purchase Could be a Win For Consumers

Charlotte Henry ·

Insurance company Allstate’s purchase of repair firm iCracked Tuesday confirmed its position as a key player in the right to repair movement. Malcolm Owen on AppleInsider commented that the deal could help Allstate speed up device repairs claims process. In the future, customers may only have to be without a phone for hours, not days.

At the same time as bolstering its consumer offerings, acquiring iCracked also makes Allstate a major force in the right to repair movement in the United States, due to its business involving third-party repairs. Repair.org executive director Gay Gordon-Byrne confirmed to Motherboard the outfit has already loaned a lobbyist to assist the push for legislation in New Hampshire. The purchase is already being seen as a positive for the movement, with iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens claiming “I’m optimistic that this partnership will elevate the visibility of the work that we’re doing together.

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It's Not Just Amazon - Lots of Residents Don't Want a Tech Giant as Their Neighbour

Charlotte Henry ·

This week, Amazon scrapped plans for a New York headquarters. However, it is not just in Queens where local residents don’t want a tech giant setting up a campus. As Rick Noak pointed out in the Washington Post, there is growing opposition from people in Berlin, Melbourne, and Dublin to tech firms expanding in their cities.  In Melbourne, the opposition is to an Apple flagship store. They may be thousands of miles apart, but residents in these cities share some coming concerns.

Tech companies bring in small armies of workers but these are rarely recruited from the neighborhoods in question and the new arrivals drive up prices for locals. There is also often opposition to the companies on ideological grounds or simply the fact that a global corporation is taking over key parts of beloved neighborhoods. While city leaders may love the new additions, residents don’t.