A New Google Assistant Feature, ‘Hold For Me,’ Waits On Hold So You Don’t Have To

“In previous years, [Google] launched Call Screen to vet your incoming calls, Duplex for restaurant reservations, and just this month, a feature called Verified Calls that will tell you who is calling and why,” reports TechCrunch. Today, Google introduced a feature called “Hold For Me,” which will make the Google Assistant stay on the line for you when you’re placed on…

Tech Firms Like Facebook Must Restrict Data Sent From EU To US, Court Rules

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the “Privacy Shield” data transfer agreement, which had allowed tech companies to transfer EU user data to the US, failed to adequately protect Europeans’ data from US surveillance and security laws and was therefore invalid. What this means is companies like Facebook “could be prevented from sending data back to the US,” reports…

The ‘Go’ Team Releases Version 1.14

The new 1.14 release of the Go programming language “is dotted with performance and security improvements,” reports the developer news site DevClass, “but also gives devs more flexibility when it comes to module use.” And they also give a nice overview of Go’s development process:
Go is the language most containerization projects are built with. The wide adoption of this approach is…

Go 1.15 Planning Will Not ‘Try’ Error Handling

The Go team is planning for a February release of Go 1.14, and “Per the process outlined in the Go 2, here we come! blog post, it is again the time in our development and release cycle to consider if and what language or library changes we might want to include for our next release, Go 1.15, scheduled for August of…

‘Music Copyright Lawsuits Are Scaring Away New Hits’, Argues Rolling Stone

A new article in Rolling Stone argues that the forgotten 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines”, which a court later ruled infringed on a 1977 song by Marvin Gaye, turned copyright law into “a minefield” — for the music industry. While copyright laws used to protect only lyrics and melodies (a prime example is the Chiffons’ successful suit against George Harrison in…

Skype Audio Graded by Workers in China With ‘No Security Measures’

A Microsoft program to transcribe and vet audio from Skype and Cortana, its voice assistant, ran for years with “no security measures,” according to a former contractor who says he reviewed thousands of potentially sensitive recordings on his personal laptop from his home in Beijing over the two years he worked for the company. From a report: The recordings, both deliberate…

Marissa Mayer’s New Project is a Suite of Timesaving Apps

The Google and Yahoo vet shares a few cryptic details about her new foray into the productivity space with Lumi Labs. From a report: Mayer remains cryptic about the specific types of apps Lumi has under development, and the time frame for their launch. But she will say that Lumi stands to benefit from the kinds of AI breakthroughs that Silicon…

Emotion Recognition Tech Should Be Banned, Says an AI Research Institute

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: A leading research centre has called for new laws to restrict the use of emotion-detecting tech. The AI Now Institute says the field is “built on markedly shaky foundations.” Despite this, systems are on sale to help vet job seekers, test criminal suspects for signs of deception, and set insurance prices. It…

How a Ugandan vet saved hundreds of gorillas by treating human disease

The best way to protect gorillas is to address human, animal and ecosystem health together, says the Ugandan veterinarian who pioneered the One Health approach Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432602-800-how-a-ugandan-vet-saved-hundreds-of-gorillas-by-treating-human-disease/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

How Fake News Is Still Fooling Facebook’s Fact-Checking Systems

Slashdot reader peterthegreat321 shared an article from Medium’s technology blog OneZero revealing the “cracks, loopholes, and limitations in Facebook’s systems that bad actors are busily exploiting.” Facebook says it’s proud of the progress it has made, though it acknowledges there’s more to be done. “Multiple independent studies have found that we’ve cut the amount of fake news on Facebook by more…