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Alter ego’? Microsoft chatbot wants to be worshipped as a deity

A Microsoft spokesperson said a series of commands caused the artificial intelligence virtual assistant to behave erratically. Users reported on social media that Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistant, Copilot, was generating strange responses in which it demanded to be…

Monopolistic concentration of technology is a threat to democracies

“We are under fire from (at least) three simultaneous wars: an Economic War unleashed to give another “turn of the screw” against the working class; a Territorial War to ensure control, meter by meter, against the mobilisations and social protests…

How to avoid train accidents

The first steam locomotives travelled at a maximum speed of eight kilometres per hour; today’s locomotives exceed 300 kilometres per hour. By Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa Rail transport has improved a lot in less than two hundred years, but unfortunately, there is…

Virtual Beauty, Virtual Freedom, Virtual Love: Is the Metaverse Our Future?

When is the last time you were outside in the morning to experience a glorious dawn? Or sat watching the sun set across the ocean horizon? How do you feel when you touch the skin of someone you love? A…

The monopolistic firewall against democratic communication in Latin America and the Caribbean

We share with our readers the text of the paper presented by Javier Tolcachier, in the event “Unraveling Digital Social Networks”, held in Quito on August 29, 30 and 31, convened by ALAI, FLACSO and CIESPAL. We have become media…

Inequality as Policy

Globalisation and technology are usually presented as natural and inevitable. In fact their course, insofar as they have led to greater inequality, this has been the result of conscious policy choices. It is much easier to have an economic system that produces more…

Japan Shows the Way to Good Life with Little Growth

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The announcement was made on August 15 by Japan’s Finance Ministry: In the last quarter of the year the Japanese economy grew at an annualised rate of 0.2%. “One wonders if the…

The problem with “trickle-down techonomics”

By Jon Gosier, Investor, data scientist, entrepreneur. For TED Hooray for technology! It makes everything better for everyone!! Right? Well, no. When a new technology, like ebooks or health trackers, is only available to some people, it has unintended consequences…

Right to Online Privacy at Risk as Governments Engage in Mass Surveillance – Counter-terrorism Expert

  Human Wrongs Watch States must be transparent about the nature of their electronic mass surveillance programmes, an independent United Nations counter-terrorism expert said on 23 October 2014 as he warned about the impact such measures might have on individuals’…

First “Academy on the Green Economy” Kicks off in Turin, Italy

Human Wrongs Watch Turin, Italy, 6 October 2014 , (ILO)* – More than 120 participants from over 20 countries gather at the ILO International Training Centre for a two-day policy forum and knowledge fair on the green economy. The event marks…

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