Love In The Uncanny ValleyWe Will Soon Have Sentient Sex Robots. Will They Be Able To Consent? Meaningful consent is possible only if robots achieve independent decision-making skills, which many futurists believe is only a few decades away. By Aditi Murti
RedactedOpen Letters by Tech Industry, Google Employees Criticize Google’s Lack of Transparency in AI Research Google is under fire for censoring its AI research after the abrupt departure of its chief AI ethicist. By Rajvi Desai
Love In The Uncanny ValleyCan Sex Robots Improve Quality of Life for Elderly, Disabled People Who Don’t Have Human Companionship? Rethinking sex robots as intelligent, respected companions who are able to engage in sexual intimacy could improve quality of life for people who lack social support. By Aditi Murti
Which Device Was It?Multitasking on Our Devices May Inhibit Memory, Researchers Find A habit of texting while watching TV could weaken our ability to focus on and retain information at other times. By Aditi Murti
Going DownWhat Would Happen If Facebook Failed? ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences, Says Oxford Report “The demise of...Facebook could have catastrophic social and economic consequences for innumerable communities that rely on the platform on a daily basis." By Rajvi Desai
End Hate SpeechInstagram, Facebook Ban Conversion Therapy Content and Advertisements While this is a win, the company's slapdash approach to fighting hate on its platforms continues to confound. By Aditi Murti
Many Pathways To HateReddit Bans 2,000 Forums For Hate‑Speech, But Bans Don’t Stop Extremist Rhetoric Previous bans have shown that extremists don't stop being extremists when their platforms are taken away. By Aditi Murti
Heads Or TailsHumans Are Terrible Guessers, and We’re Dragging AI’s Guessing Game Down With Us However, certain algorithms designed to remove bias-inducing variables from datasets may help coders train machines better. By Aditi Murti
Cyber MeanStudy: Young Boys Are More Likely to Have Experienced Digital Dating Abuse Than Young Girls Looking through private devices, posting pictures without consent, and threatening via text are all signs of digital dating abuse. By Aditi Murti
Tinfoil HatWhy We Really Shouldn’t Be Training AI to Decipher Facial Expressions Facial expressions are notoriously faulty indicators of internal emotions. By Aditi Murti
Miles To GoWomen Are Sole Founders of Less than 6% of All Indian Start‑ups: RBI Cultural bias against women business leaders impairs their ability to seek funding. By Pallavi Prasad
The Walls Have EyesApple, Google, and Amazon Are Integrating Their Smart Home Devices. Should We Care? Making smart home devices compatible across brands primarily benefits the companies that make them -- not the users. By Liesl Goecker
Looking AheadTechnology Can Help Solve India’s Problem Retaining Women in the Workforce 'Bridgital' solutions use technology to enable access and generate employment -- starting with childcare. By Natarajan Chandrasekaran & Roopa Purushothaman
Look UpTexting While Walking Has Led to an Increase in Head and Neck Injuries: Study Most injuries occur when texting while walking, others when phones fall and hit the face. By Anubhuti Matta
Deny ThyselfDopamine Fasting Is Gaining Fans — Without Much Basis in Science The ascetic trend out of Silicon Valley is an attempt to manipulate our brains' pleasure centers -- but not a particularly effective one. By Liesl Goecker
In Between91% of 15‑Year‑Olds Can’t Separate Fact From Opinion In the era of fake news, an inability to distinguish between the two has real-world implications. By Anubhuti Matta
Limited AppealGoogle Bans Political Ads that Target Voters by Their Political Leanings Political ads on Google will only be able to target voters using data about their age, gender, and postal code. By Anubhuti Matta
coming of ageLittle Big Things: The 78‑Year‑Old Grandmother Learning to Use a Smartphone "It took me 12 to 14 months to learn how to use emojis, type messages in English. But now I think I'm perfect at it." By Rajvi Desai
