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NEGOTIATING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE Admittedly, this isn’t the most positive topic, but Boeing’s recent troubles have introduced us to a technologically focused conundrum that we may keep running into for the next few years. Two horrific commercial plane crashes in the space of just six months, causing the tragic deaths of some 326 passengers and flight crew, have led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX worldwide. In October last year, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in Indonesia , killing everybody on board the aircraft. Shortly after takeoff at 06:20, the pilots experienced a problem establishing their correct speed and altitude; an error also experienced the last time the plane flew. Outside the plane, an ‘angle of attack’ sensor had falsely indicated that the plane’s nose…

The biggest tech companies want you to know that they’re taking special care to ensure that their use of artificial intelligence to sift through mountains of data, analyze faces or build virtual assistants doesn’t spill over to the dark side. But their efforts to assuage concerns that their machines may be used for nefarious ends have not been universally embraced. Some skeptics see it as mere window dressing by corporations more interested in profit than what’s in society’s best interests. “Ethical AI” has become a new corporate buzz phrase, slapped on internal review committees, fancy job titles, research projects and philanthropic initiatives. The moves are meant to address concerns over racial and gender bias emerging in facial recognition and other AI systems, as well as address anxieties about job losses…

Firefighters used drone technology to help battle a house fire near Kindred. Officials say the Cass County Sheriff’s Office drone gave firefighters an aerial view of the fire which allowed them to attack the hot spots. KVRR reports Kindred Fire Chief Rich Schock says the roof had collapsed and the walls were bulging making it unsafe for firefighters to enter. One person who was home at the time the fire broke out escaped without injury.…

Free Spirit Khalid With the once teen sensation now in his early 20s, Khalid’s second album comes with a great degree of anticipation. Indeed, this is one of the themes of Free Spirit, as the still young artist soulfully reflects on what he has learned and achieved, and his struggles to balance creative freedom with meeting high expectations. FIVE FACTS: 1. Khalid (which means ‘eternal’ in Arabic) was born Khalid Donnel Robinson on February 11, 1998. 2. He is originally from Fort Stewart, Georgia, but also spent parts of his childhood in Kentucky, New York, Texas, and Heidelberg in Germany. 3. In July 2016, he reached number two on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart. 4. His first album, American Teen, was released in 2017 and was nominated for the…

Kensington Palace says Britain’s Prince Harry will be partnering with Oprah Winfrey to create a documentary series on mental health for Apple’s new streaming service. The documentary builds on Harry’s work on mental health issues, which included work with brother Prince William and his wife Kate in their Heads Together campaign. Harry says the series will share “global stories of unparalleled human spirit fighting back from the darkest places” and the “opportunity for us to understand ourselves and those around us better.” Earlier this year, Apple enlisted Winfrey, together with Jennifer Aniston and Steven Spielberg, to try to overcome the TV and movie streaming service business dominated by Netflix and Amazon. The service, dubbed Apple TV Plus, will feature Apple’s original shows and movies.…

Spacewalking astronauts completed battery and cable work outside the International Space Station on Monday despite communication trouble that sometimes made it hard for them to hear. During the spacewalk, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques reported that U.S. astronaut Anne McClain’s voice was faint at times. The problem worsened as their 6 ½-hour excursion drew to a close. “We know that it’s a lot of hard work and a lot of big sighs of relief as soon as this hatch gets closed,” McClain said once the pair were inside the air lock. Within moments, the spacewalkers could barely hear their colleagues over the radio loop. They had to shout and repeat words at times, as did the astronauts on the other side of the hatch. McClain, meanwhile, reported having a thin layer…

New Zealand’s official privacy watchdog described Facebook as “morally bankrupt” and suggested his country follow neighboring Australia’s lead by making laws that could jail executives over streamed violence such as the Christchurch mosque shootings. Privacy Commissioner John Edwards has been critical of Facebook’s response to a gunman using the platform to livestream some of the slaughter of 50 worshippers and the wounding of 50 more at two mosques on March 15. Edwards made his comments after Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg recently rejected calls to introduce a delay in his livestreaming service Facebook Live, saying it would interfere with the interactivity of livestreaming. “Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions,” Edwards posted on Twitter. Facebook has been…

Momentum is gaining in Washington for a privacy law that could sharply rein in the ability of the largest technology companies to collect and make money off people’s personal data. A national law, the first of its kind in the U.S., could allow people to see or prohibit the use of their data. Companies would need permission to release such information. If it takes effect, a law would also likely shrink Big Tech’s profits from its lucrative business of making personal data available to advertisers so they can pinpoint specific consumers to target. Behind the drive for a law is rising concern over the compromise of private data held by Facebook, Google and other tech giants that have earned riches by aggregating consumer information. The industry traditionally has been lightly…

With Apple pulling back the curtain on its new gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, we take a closer look at the Cupertino firm’s plans to revolutionize the industry and delve deeper into the wider gaming landscape at a time when innovation is rife, new players are entering the market, and traditional gaming consoles are becoming a thing of the past… GAME OVER FOR CONSOLES If you’ve ever been a gamer, then the chances are that you spent at least some of your youth in a GameStop, or the gaming aisle at your local Walmart, checking out the latest titles and deciding whether to opt for Final Fantasy VII or the latest Spyro the Dragon release. Many of our favorite console games were played for a month or two and then…

If Uber and Facebook can pinpoint the precise location of an individual, why can’t 911? That’s the question John Brosowsky, vice president of innovation at GeoComm, and his team at the St. Cloud-based geographic information system business are working to answer. After successfully implementing a new mapping system to help authorities monitor activity at the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, GeoComm partnered with local organizations to map area schools. “We had a lot of success with that,” said John Bryant, president and chief executive officer of GeoComm. “After Parkland, we decided we wanted to try to bring what we did at that level to our backyard.” GeoComm partnered with the St. Cloud Public Safety Foundation to implement new technology at dispatch centers in Stearns, Benton and Sherburne counties. They then…

Like health officials facing outbreaks of disease, internet companies are trying to contain vaccine-related misinformation they have long helped spread. So far, their efforts at quarantine are falling short. Searches of Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram turn up all sorts of bogus warnings about vaccines, including the soundly debunked notions that they cause autism or that mercury preservatives and other substances in them can poison and even kill people. Some experts fear that the online spread of bad information about vaccines is planting or reinforcing fears in parents, and they suspect it is contributing to the comeback in recent years of certain dangerous childhood diseases, including measles, whooping cough and mumps. “The online world has been one that has been very much taken over by misinformation spread by concerned parents,”said Richard…

Where most “Game of Thrones” fans were horrified by the beheading of the beloved Ned Stark and blamed it on a ruthless king, Columbia University business professor Bruce Craven saw a lesson in failed leadership. The northerner Stark was simply too proud to adjust to the cutthroat nature of King’s Landing as it became mired in a scramble over royal succession. His execution set into motion battles, intrigues, romances and resurrections that will culminate this Sunday with the show’s highly-anticipated final season. In the AP’s weekly “Wealth of Westeros” series, we’ll be delving into the latest plot twists and analyzing the economic and business forces driving the story. We examine the show’s central question in Part 1: Who will win the Iron Throne? The judgment of Craven and other academic…

Zapping the brains of people over 60 with a mild electrical current improved a form of memory enough that they performed like people in their 20s, a new study found. Someday, people might visit clinics to boost that ability, which declines both in normal aging and in dementias like Alzheimer’s disease, said researcher Robert Reinhart of Boston University. The treatment is aimed at “working memory,” the ability to hold information in mind for a matter of seconds as you perform a task, such as doing math in your head. Sometimes called the workbench or scratchpad of the mind, it’s crucial for things like taking medications, paying bills, buying groceries or planning, Reinhart said. “It’s where your consciousness lives ... where you’re working on information,” he said. The new study is…

European Union authorities said that German automakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen colluded to limit the development of emissions-cleaning technology in cars. The finding adds to the car industry’s woes after Volkswagen in 2015 admitted to cheating on emissions tests in the U.S., which led to a worldwide reevaluation of how cars are tested and how to limit emissions to make air cleaner and fight climate change. The EU antitrust regulator said that after an in-depth investigation, it found that BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen, including its Audi and Porsche units, broke EU laws from 2006 to 2014 by illegally agreeing among themselves to limit the roll-out of the technology. The technology helps eliminate nitrogen oxides, which can be harmful to human health, from both gasoline and diesel passenger cars. The alleged…

Facebook says it will use artificial intelligence to help find profiles of people who have died, so their friends and family members won’t get, for instance, painful reminders about their birthday. The social network said that it is also adding a “tributes”section to accounts that have been memorialized, that is, designated as belonging to someone who has died. Friends and family members will be able to write posts and share photos in this section to remember their loved one. Facebook is also tightening its rules around who can memorialize an account. Until now, anyone could do this by sending the company proof that someone had died, such an obituary. Now, it will have to be a friend or family member.…

The House has passed bill Wednesday to restore Obama-era “net neutrality” rules, but the legislation faces slim odds of making it through the Republican-controlled Senate. The Save the Internet Act passed the Democrat-controlled House 232-190 Wednesday, with only one Republican vote in favor. But top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that net neutrality is “dead on arrival in the Senate.” The Trump administration also opposes the bill. Still, the effort to restore net neutrality could give Democrats political points on consumer protections. The 2015 net neutrality regulations barred internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from blocking or slowing online traffic or from charging companies for faster lanes for consumers. They were highly partisan in Washington and came after a decade of telecom-industry resistance. They were upheld by…

Univision has sold tech site Gizmodo, satirical-news hub The Onion and other English-language sites to the private equity firm Great Hill Partners. Terms were not disclosed. The Spanish-language broadcaster bought much of what was then known as Gawker Media for $135 million in 2016 after the gossipy, confrontational media company lost a privacy suit against Hulk Hogan. (The original Gawker.com has a different owner. It is being relaunched by another digital media company, Bustle.) Just a few years ago, Univision was investing in English-language digital sites aimed at young people. It had bought The Onion in January 2016 and African-American news site The Root in 2015. But the strategy didn’t turn out well. The sites were not profitable and the company has refocused on Spanish TV. Univision, based in New…

On The Basis of Sex Plot Summary: Following her struggle to break into the law profession despite an incredible academic record, a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes on a groundbreaking tax case, knowing it could not only change her career, but also how the courts view gender discrimination. This biopic follows her journey through adversity as a student, mother, wife, and inspiration. FIVE FACTS: 1. Daniel Stiepleman, who wrote the movie, is the nephew of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 2. Natalie Portman was originally cast to play Ginsburg, but dropped out during four years of the project being stuck in development. 3. The movie received the third annual San Francisco Film Honors award in November 2018. 4. Cailee Spaeny, who plays Ginsburg’s daughter, is only 13 years younger than lead actress…

French filmmaker Claire Denis, one of the great living directors, has not lost her edge as she’s coasted into her 70s. Her latest film, “High Life,” which debuted last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now making it to theaters, is as stimulating and challenging as anything she made in the 90s. Although here, she’s taken us not to post-Colonial West Africa or modern day working class France, but to the outer reaches of space to drift around an ominous black hole with Robert Pattinson and a baby, daring us to piece together how they ended up in such a precarious situation. The only thing that’s immediately clear is that they are alone on this spaceship, which is hardly the most advanced-looking rig. Instead it seems straight…

The European Union’s competition watchdog is stepping up its investigation of a U.S. video game platform and five game makers over concerns they blocked players from buying cheaper versions of games in other countries. The EU’s competition commissioner said it issued a statement of objections to Valve Corp., which owns the Steam online PC game distribution platform, and the computer game publishers Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, KochMedia and ZeniMax. The commission, which started looking into the issue two years ago, said the companies breached the bloc’s antitrust rules by agreeing to use “geo-blocked activation keys” to prevent cross-border game sales. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the companies prevented game players from shopping around for the best price and they now have a chance to respond to her concerns.…