Meta fined a record $1.3bn for EU data transfers to the US
Meta has been hit with a record $1.3bn fine for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US despite security risks. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s burgeoning social media enterprise already reaching last-chance saloon territory? To summarise the current Meta situation in Gen Z terms, there’s only one phrase that...
Current in Tech
Is the upcoming bodycam shooter ‘Unrecord’ too true to life?
An upcoming shooter game called Unrecord aims to accurately simulate the bodycam of a tactical officer. But has its developer’s emphasis on overtly realistic mechanics, graphics, and themes created something a little too true to life? The technology available to game developers today is allowing them to create more immersive...
Electronic implant helps paralysed man walk again in historic first
The revolutionary wireless device, which reads brain waves and sends instructions to the spine to move the right muscles, has allowed him to regain his natural mobility simply by thinking about it. In 2011, Gert-Jan Oskam was in a motorcycle accident that left him paralysed from the waist down....
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launches new app ‘Bluesky’
Who doesn’t love a little healthy competition? Jack Dorsey, who is partly responsible for Twitter’s rise to success, has now launched a new platform called Bluesky. It’s aimed at competing with Twitter, under Elon Musk. Twitter has been nothing short of a mess since Elon Musk took over as CEO...
Closing the technology gender divide in Africa
Technology is an essential tool for social and economic development in Africa. However, despite significant progress in recent years, there is still a significant gender gap in technology access and participation across the African continent. As the world becomes increasingly digital, the gender divide in technology is a growing concern,...
AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton warns of its risks and quits Google
For half a century, AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton nurtured the technology at the heart of chatbots like ChatGPT. Now, having left Google, he warns it could cause serious harm in the future. Regarded by many as a ‘godfather’ of AI technology, Geoffrey Hinton’s pioneering research paved the way for sophisticated...
How has espionage evolved in the modern world?
Espionage has been a part of human history for centuries and will continue to be an issue in the modern world. Especially in the age of rapidly advancing technology. The US recently faced scrutiny after highly classified documents from the Pentagon leaked online, implicating that the US was spying on both adversaries and allies. It caused distress over the future of the country’s foreign relationships within government. Despite the fanfare,...
Dove campaign examines ‘cost of beauty’ for youth mental health
The brand’s research has revealed that nine in ten children are being exposed to toxic beauty content on social media, which is having a ‘heart-breaking’ impact on their mental and physical wellbeing. Renowned for championing self-esteem, Dove has just debuted a report titled ‘The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals’ examining the impact of our image-obsessed world on young people’s mental and physical wellbeing. Investigating both body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination,...
Chicago researchers create EV battery prototype with 1,000-mile range
Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory and the Illinois Institute of Technology have created a prototype battery with the potential to expand the range of electric vehicles to 1,000 miles. This could also be huge for sustainable aircrafts. The average electric vehicle on the market will likely have a range of between 100 and 300 miles per charge, though automakers are striving for more with solid-state battery releases. Unlike their lithium...
Google employees reportedly call Bard ‘worse than useless’
In its efforts to prevent Microsoft and Open AI running away in the commercial AI chatbot race, Google rolled out Bard way ahead of schedule. A new report claims company employees begged executives not to launch it at the time. Chiefs at Microsoft probably can’t believe their luck. AI has long been tipped as the next massively lucrative venture within tech, and ChatGPT remains largely unchallenged as the benchmark product. In...
