Tiny microphones are moving us toward a world in which all gadgets can respond to a voice command. For those worried about privacy: meet a $200 trash can.
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Christopher Mims
Technology columnist, The Wall Street JournalChristopher Mims writes Keywords, a weekly column on technology. Before joining the Journal in 2014, he was the lead technology reporter for Quartz and has written on science and tech for publications ranging from Technology Review, Smithsonian, Wired, the Atlantic, Slate and other publications. Mims, who has degree in neuroscience and behavioral biology from Emory University, lives in Baltimore.
Articles
As student debt mounts and a shortage of skilled workers persists, students find their local two-year institution could be a lower-cost shortcut to a good job.
Facial-recognition technology enables governments and private enterprise to track citizens anywhere there is a camera, even if they’re not carrying any devices. It’s a stark example of a technology that is being deployed faster than society and the law can adopt new norms and rules, writes Christopher Mims.
As efficient mobile processors overtake their laptop-powering counterparts, Apple could switch MacBooks over to its own custom chips.
The merger of AT&T and Time Warner will bring bigger—not cheaper—packages of entertainment rather than a la carte, pay-as-you-go custom content, writes Christopher Mims.
Silicon Valley has an accountability crisis, and at its root is the idolatry of its founder-CEOs, writes Christopher Mims.
Will Facebook, Google and Amazon be regulated or broken up like Standard Oil and AT&T? It depends on how they grow, writes Christopher Mims.
Keywords
The AI Doctor Will See You Now
Artificial intelligence in medicine promises to alert us to disease or a medical emergency before it happens—if only we can navigate the pitfalls.
Tesla and other companies are conducting an experiment in public safety, with unproven car technology on public roads and drivers who might not be aware of all the risks.
Privacy, like public safety, is a problem that must be dealt with collectively or not at all: Welcome to the era of “group privacy.”
Google’s data-gathering empire is bigger and more pervasive than Facebook’s—and while it hasn’t been plagued by scandal, it can’t evade scrutiny forever.
