Technology

Big Tech has used its power to control the field of AI ethics and avoid accountability. Now, the ouster of Timnit Gebru from Google is putting the movement for equitable tech in the spotlight. Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

Facebook’s “fight with Australia is again raising debate around social media networks’ enormous control over people’s access to information ... My research in the history of international media politics has shown that a handful of rich countries have long exerted undue influence over how the rest of the world gets its news,” writes Vanessa Freije, assistant professor of international relations at the UW.

Google, Facebook and others promise more flexibility to work from home. But they’re charging ahead with plans for more offices. Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the top American philanthropist in 2020, giving away $10.1 billion to nonprofit efforts associated with climate change and education, according to a ranking released this week by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Bezos, ranked second on the list with donations to a wide array of non-profits that totaled $5.7 billion. The UW's Ed Lazowska, professor of computer science and engineering, and Margaret O'Mara, professor of history, are quoted.

“If history is any guide, the next act of Jeff Bezos, the man who turned a crazy-at-the-time idea to sell books over the internet into a $1.67 trillion behemoth, could be more consequential than the last,” writes Margaret O'Mara, professor of history at the UW.

Miguel Morales, professor of physics, has authored a new series on quantum mechanics for a general audience.

The ability of companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to control what people see online is so potent, it is the subject of antitrust hearings. But the decision by Amazon to push Parler off its dominant cloud-computing service illustrates just how powerful its content-moderation capabilities are as well. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Twitter’s decision Friday to join Facebook in permanently suspending President Trump’s account underscored the fundamental role of social media in one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. If it feels strange and unusual, that’s because there’s no historical precedent, neither in media nor the presidency. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, is interviewed on the GeekWire podcast.

Last year, Amazon surpassed Boeing as the state’s largest private employer, usurping a title the airplane manufacturer had likely held since the post-World War II era. The UW’s Margaret O’Mara, professor of history; Jeff Shulman, professor of marketing; and Andrew Hedden, associate director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, are quoted.

In an era of quantum computing and self-driving cars, Sarah Stroup, professor of classics at the UW, teaches a class called "STEM in the Ancient World." [This is the second segment of "The Record"]

“Silicon Valley’s obituary has been written prematurely before; boom-and-bust cycles have defined the region’s economy for decades,” writes Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW.

Frances McCue is a poet, writer, co-founder of nonprofit community writing center Hugo House and a teaching professor of English at the University of Washington. She reads a piece in a special installment of the GeekWire Podcast.

On Wednesday, several of Timnit Gebru's former colleagues wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking that she be reinstated, saying her departure has "had a demoralizing effect on the whole of our team." Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the UW, is quoted.

There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a strange year. So strange, in fact, that the idea of an obstacle-dodging, autonomous cyborg drone that uses a real live moth antenna to track down smells doesn’t sound too much like weird science fiction. That’s probably a good thing, too, because it’s something that researchers from the University of Washington have actually built. And they’ve called it "smellicopter," because … why the heck not? The UW's Melanie Anderson, a doctoral student of mechanical engineering, and Thomas Daniel, professor of biology, are quoted.

In the early days of modern computers, the Simulmatics Corporation manipulated technology to mine data, affect the news, and influence voter and consumer preferences. Sound familiar? The tech titans of today have formidable ancestors. Margaret O’Mara, professor of history at the UW, interviews Harvard University’s Jill Lepore.