False news spreads faster than true stories, and it's because of humans, not bots, according to a new study published today in Science. Our preference for novel news, which is often false, may be driving our behavior, researchers from MIT report.
The bottom line: "It's important to avoid temptation to shift the blame elsewhere and focus on these non- human and foreign actors. Even if we solve bots and the foreign interference problem, it wouldn’t solve the problem of online misinformation," says Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, who wasn't involved in the study.
A group of web companies including Twitter, Reddit and Yelp are mounting a last-ditch effort to modify an anti-trafficking bill that would make it possible for trafficking victims to sue websites that facilitate the crime.
Why it matters: It highlights the way that smaller web companies haven't followed some of their larger counterparts in backing the bill as the debate comes to a close on Capitol Hill. At issue is the way the legislation would weaken the historically ironclad prohibition on suing an online platform over user-generated content.
If you hold the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S9 next to one another you'd be hard-pressed to tell the two apart, and that's by design. The improvements over last year are designed to be subtle, but appreciated refinements, mostly around the camera.
Our take: If you liked the S8, you'll like the S9. Like its predecessor, the S9 is beautiful and powerful, but there may not be enough there to merit upgrading. The same goes for the larger-screen S9+,
Starsky Robotics, a self-driving truck startup, has raised $16.5 million in new funding led by Shasta Ventures, with Y Combinator, Trucks.vc, 50 Years, 9Point Ventures, and others also participating.
Why it matters: Trucking will be one of the first applications of autonomous driving as highways are much easier to master than urban driving.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) says he'd like to grill America's social media companies at a hearing about the way threats of gun violence, including against schools, spread online.
Why it matters: Social media can be a potent vehicle for threats of violence. Earlier this week schools in Bayonne, N.J. shut down after threats of a school shooting appeared on social media.
Facebook says it is trying to deal with an expired security certificate issue that is keeping Oculus Rift headsets from working.
The bottom line: Hardware is increasingly at the mercy of software meaning a small bug can render a device completely useless, at least until the issue is fixed.
A representative from Massachusetts' Attorney General office railed against two proposed national breach notification standards that would weaken her state's breach notification laws.
Why it matters: In the wake of the Equifax breach, legislators had a newfound energy to pass a national standard to determine when corporations need to contact customers after personal data is breached by hackers or accidentally compromised by employees. It never looked easy to pass the legislation, and Wednesday's Financial Services subcommittee underscored just that.
Snapchat is cutting about 10% of its engineering team, or roughly 100 people, Cheddar's Alex Heath reports.
Why it matters: The company has experienced much smaller rounds of layoffs within the last few months. These layoffs, which follow closely behind a major redesign of the company's app, would be the largest to date for the roughly 3,000-person company.
1-800 Flowers CEO Chris McCann believes that the future of retail success involves using technologies like chatbots and AI concierges to casually interact with customers. Per an interview with Yahoo Finance:
“We see a fifth wave emerging now, which we’re calling and others are calling conversational commerce."
S&P Global has agreed to acquire Kensho, a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of AI-powered analytics for traders, for around $550 million in cash and stock.
Why it matters: This appears to be the largest-ever purchase of an AI startup, topping Google's 2014 deal for DeepMind.
Broadcom's effort to acquire Qualcomm had already turned into a proxy battle for control of the company's board of directors. Increasingly, though, the hostile takeover bid is being seen as a proxy for a larger battle — U.S. vs China.
The latest: At Qualcomm's request, the U.S. government is looking into whether a deal would raise national security concerns. The investigating entity, known as CFIUS, ordered Qualcomm to postpone its shareholder vote, saying it wanted more time to look into a variety of concerns, including whether the deal might weaken Qualcomm's position as a leader in wireless standards-setting.
A record 2,208 billionaires made Forbes’ 32nd annual ranking of the world’s richest with centi-billionaire Jeff Bezos seizing the top spot for the first time.
President Trump's fortune stands at $3.1 billion, down $400 million from last year. He dropped to #766 from #544 last year, thanks to falling "values of Midtown Manhattan real estate and declining revenues at several Trump golf properties."
