Author: The Conversation

The past two years were a busy time for real estate professionals. While commercial buildings like office towers, shopping malls and hotels stood empty for months in a row as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, building owners and their corporate tenants were pondering how to bring people back to their properties. Technology plays a big role in these plans. As part of their return-to-work plans, a couple of European investment banks have decided to smarten their employees’ work stations by placing under-desk sensors to optimize office occupancy. The technology is similar to that used to manage parking spots. The use…

The Bitcoin bulls are racing again. A year ago the cryptocurrency was valued at less than US$12,000. Now it has passed the symbolic milestone of US$60,000, nudging the US$63,255 record it reached in mid-April, before its price fell to as low as US$30,000 in July. Bitcoin’s rally over the past month is largely attributed to speculation the US Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to approve an exchange-traded fund, or ETF, based on Bitcoin futures. So what is an ETF, and why does this matter to the value of Bitcoin? CC BY-SA How does an ETF work? An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund,…

If the latest deluge of Facebook controversies has you ready to kick the app to the digital curb, you are not alone. There are plenty of good guides out there on how to do it right. Even Facebook makes it pretty easy to understand the nuances of saying “see ya later” (deactivating) or “never speak to me again” (deleting). But before you go, you might want to consider this: What happens to your life stories? For many people, a decade or more of updates, comments, photos, messages, tags, pokes, groups and reactions reside inside that particular digital sphere. And Facebook wants you to remember that. As one writer put…

Many TV shows have a scene where a customer attempts to buy a potentially embarrassing product – a pornographic magazine perhaps or a diarrhoea treatment – only to have the assistant loudly check the price or ask questions for other people to hear. Situations like this do happen in pharmacies and other shops. And they tend to make people squirm. But, what if they could interact with a robot instead of a human employee? In our recent research my colleagues and I found the use of robots, rather than people, as assistants may reduce people’s feelings of embarrassment. In one experiment, we…

In 2019, more than two billion people had an internet connection — more than 60 billion Google searches per month and 156 million emails were sent per minute. These statistics hint at the intensity and penetration of the internet in our daily interactions. And over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the increase in our collective dependence on digital technologies for our professional, social and recreational needs. One of the outcomes of this increased dependence is the subjection of our everyday work and personal lives to increased surveillance. As a researcher at the Centre for Studies on Integration…

Netflix’s dystopian Korean drama Squid Game has become the streaming platform’s biggest-ever series launch, with 111 million viewers watching at least two minutes of an episode. Out of the thousands of programmes available on Netflix globally, how did so many people end up watching the same show? The easy answer is an algorithm – a computer program that offers us personalised recommendations on a platform based on our data and that of other users. Streaming platforms like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime have undoubtedly reshaped the way we consume media, primarily by massively increasing the film, music and TV available to viewers. How do we…

Is space really the final frontier? William Shatner has found out after boldly going where no 90-year-old has gone before. Some 55 years after Captain James T Kirk hit our screens in the original Star Trek, Shatner recently launched to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard for a ten-minute sub-orbital flight. https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1447367260473987074? Shatner has become the oldest person to go to space, breaking the record set only recently by 82-year-old Wally Funk, who travelled on the New Shepard’s first crewed spaceflight in July. Funk was one of the Mercury 13 women who qualified for spaceflight in the 1960s but never flew. With commercial spaceflight…

Before Pong there was Computer Space, the first commercial video game. The progenitor of today’s US$175 billion industry debuted on Oct. 15, 1971, at the Music Operators of America trade show in Chicago. Housed in a futuristic-looking cabinet, Computer Space took its place alongside the latest jukeboxes, pinball machines and other coin-operated games manufacturers were pitching to arcade and bar owners. Computer Space, made by the small company Nutting Associates, seemed to have everything going for it. Its scenario – flying a rocket ship through space locked in a dogfight with two flying saucers – seemed perfect for the times. The Apollo Moon…

Discussions about how Facebook operates have been high on the agenda over the past week as the US Congress investigates the platform’s impact. At the core of these discussions are questions of how Facebook uses data that we, as users, generate. Similar questions can be asked of all the digital services we use, whether run by companies, governments, or other organisations. These platforms use our data to determine what content we see or which services we’re offered. Whether we realise it or not, this can affect our lives in a variety of ways. But how well do people understand these issues? Do…

A major new report on the state of artificial intelligence (AI) has just been released. Think of it as the AI equivalent of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, in that it identifies where AI is at today, and the promise and perils in view. From language generation and molecular medicine to disinformation and algorithmic bias, AI has begun to permeate every aspect of our lives. The report argues that we are at an inflection point where researchers and governments must think and act carefully to contain the risks AI presents and make the most of its benefits. A century-long…