For decades, U.S. tech startups have been the beating heart of Silicon Valley. But almost unnoticed by economists, they are now in the same funk dogging some other sectors of the American economy.
Why it matters: In the booming 1980s and 1990s, much of U.S. job and productivity growth was the handiwork of a few young startups and their hit innovations. But the decline, which began in 2005, has stripped the economy of one of its most vibrant engines of wage and productivity growth, says John Haltiwanger, an economist at the University of Maryland.
Among efforts to make social media a more congenial place, researchers at Cornell are working on artificial intelligence that detects nasty online conversations when they are only starting to take that turn.
What's going on: Most studies of online conversation look for phrases such as, "What the hell is wrong with you.” But, by then, it's too late. In their new paper, Justine Zhang, Jonathan Chang and Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil say they aim to ferret out anti-social clues "when the conversation is still salvageable."
