I’ve had to use all of my super powers this week. I’m glad it’s Thursday. I’m taking tomorrow off! I can’t remember the last time I did that. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, cold cash up cryptos down, El Goog comes in the clutch with Google I/O, a Waymo driverless vehicle pulls a runner. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
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SAN JOSE APPROVES GOOGLE’S CITY IN A CITY PROJECT
I don’t know about you, but all I can think of is Racoon City. The City of San Jose, California has approved an 80-acre commercial and real estate development project its calling Downtown West. The project will consist of 4,000 housing units, 7.3 million square feet of office space, and large open space for Google employees. The project hasn’t gone on without controversy. Affordable housing advocates have protested the meager 1,000 affordable housing units given San Jose is one of the hardest places to buy a house in the country with an average price of $1.1 million. The San Jose Sharks protested the development until they were guaranteed parking at their nearby arena, and I keep thinking about that failed, fictional company town Racoon City which produced zombies.
AMAZON BUYS MGM, BUT NOT ALL OF BOND
In the latest of content distribution mega deals, Amazon has bought movie production studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM as we all know it. In a sign of too much money the deal is valued at $8.45 billion with a ‘B’. The smart money says that the deal should be valued at $6.5 billion. The key properties in the deal is of course, Bond. But Amazon might have to take their martini stirred. They’ll get 50% of a controlling interest in Bond while the Broccoli family will retain the other half. The Broccolis have retained an iron-fisted control of Bond, being directly involved in the creative direction and reach of the franchise. These people are people who know what they own. Side Note: this little purchase has raised Amazon’s anti-trust profile with anti-trust scholar and general critic Lina Khan possibly gaining a seat on the Federal Trade Commission.
EMOTION DETECTION SOFTWARE TESTED IN CHINA
Xinjiang province is known as the most surveilled municipality in the world. The province is home to 12 million ethnic Uyghurs most of whom are Muslim. Earlier this week, a Chinese software engineer said he installed camera systems and software that used emotion-detection software powered by AI. The systems have been installed in police stations around the province and have allegedly been tested on Uyghurs. Precedents like this are dangerous in my opinion. There’s something to said that machines do what they’re told, but we all know that bias has been baked in AI. Many technology companies have canceled AI projects used by US law enforcement agencies because of mistakes in the tech. Re-education centers, providing DNA to law enforcement, and emotion-detection cameras… more reasons why I have no desire to travel to China.
