The company behind the AP’s ‘robot journalists’ is opening up its technology for everyone
Technology is already being used by companies like the Associated Press and Yahoo to auto-generate data-heavy articles about quarterly earnings, college sports, and even fantasy football recaps. Today, the company is unveiling a public-facing version of its Wordsmith platform for anyone to use. You can sign up for access to the beta, with general availability […]
U.S. officials are scrambling: Massive data breach exposes federal employees
Chinese hackers have caused a massive data breach in U.S. government computer networks, placing the entire federal workforce at risk. Data from the Office of Personnel Management, which is essentially the human resources department for the federal government, as well as the Interior Department have been accessed by foreign hackers, the Department of Homeland Security […]
Google’s self-driving cars will hit the road this summer
Northern Californian neighborhoods are getting ready to welcome autonomous vehicle test drives to their public roads. Humans, get ready to ride shotgun. Google’s computer-driven cars will debut on the public streets of northern California this summer, according to the director of Google’s GOOG -0.90% self-driving car project Chris Urmson. Capped at 25 miles per […]
Self-driving car accidents revealed in California
Four out of the 48 self-driving cars on public roads in California have been involved in accidents in the last eight months, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency began issuing permits for the testing of autonomous vehicles in September 2014. Three of the four cars belonged to Google, the fourth […]
Cuban youth build secret computer network despite Wi-Fi ban
Cut off from the Internet, young Cubans have quietly linked thousands of computers into a hidden network that stretches miles across Havana, letting them chat with friends, play games and download hit movies in a mini-replica of the online world that most can’t access. HAVANA — Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful […]
Mark Zuckerberg gets married at surprise wedding
By almost any standard, Mark Zuckerberg has had a week to remember. Yesterday, he started his day off by ringing the Nasdaq bell and taking his social-networking company public, raising $16 billion in the process. Earlier in the week, his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan graduated from medical school. And today, just for good measure, the […]
Florida’s tribal casinos grew revenue by 1% in 2010, report says
An annual industry report shows that Indian gaming in Florida had slow growth in 2010 after two years of double-digit increases — but still raked in $2.06 billion. After years of dramatic growth, Florida’s eight tribal casinos — all but one operated by the Seminole Tribe — came back down to earth in 2010, growing […]
FBI seeks social media monitoring tool
In a move that’s unlikely to sit well with privacy advocates, the FBI has begun scouting for a tool that will allow it to gather and mine data from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. The objective is to use the software to stay on most sensible of breaking occasions, incidents and emerging threats, […]