Scammers are seizing on the fear and chaos swirling around the coronavirus pandemic to swindle people out of their money and identities.
Why it matters: Americans have reported almost $18 million in fraud losses due to such scams. The Federal Trade Commission received more than 23,000 coronavirus-related fraud or identity theft complaints since the start of the year, as of April 21.
An Italian-based artificial intelligence company is regularly analyzing social media posts about the coronavirus for their emotional content.
Why it matters: Classifying tens of thousands of posts by their emotional tone provides a snapshot of how people feel about the pandemic. Spoiler alert: not great!
Coronavirus appears to be accelerating the adoption of workplace automation — and the trend is likely to stick around after the pandemic.
Why it matters: Adopting robots and AI could keep businesses going during social distancing and reduce the health risk to human workers. But with unemployment already at Great Depression levels, many of the jobs lost to automation might never be regained.
