The supposedly secure messaging app ToTok is actually a spying tool being used by the government of the United Arab Emirates to mass surveil its users, the New York Times reports, citing its own internal investigation and U.S. officials familiar with a classified intelligence assessment.
Why it matters: The app has been downloaded by millions of users in the Middle East, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and it was one of the most downloaded social apps in the U.S. last week. Its exploitation by the Emiratis is an illustration of how authoritarian governments are increasingly finding novel and more effective ways to expand their surveillance networks and crack down on perceived enemies or dissenters.
The Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group plans to review over the next year whether its holdings in Big Tech firms are compatible with Christianity, the Telegraph reports.
Why it matters: The review will help determine whether the church's $15.6 billion investment fund should back companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google, which are pursuing artificial intelligence and robotics.
Tech companies appear to be bowing to new privacy rules springing up in Europe, California and elsewhere, putting in place processes to show they're complying.
Yes, but: Some of these moves are smokescreens that allow the companies to avoid making big, painful changes, some legal experts argue — enabled by a legal system that offloads enforcement onto the very companies being regulated.
Returning to a technology largely discarded since the 1960s, scientists are betting on analog computing to wean AI systems off the monstrous amounts of electricity they currently require.
Why it matters: AI is on track to use up a tenth of the world's electricity by 2025, by one estimate. Cutting back on this consumption has huge climate implications — plus it’s essential for mobile devices and autonomous cars to do complex calculations on the fly.
