Silicon Valley firms compete to hack R2-D2

Several top Silicon Valley companies took part in a competition to hack an R2-D2 robot.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Facebook and The Gates Foundation are matching $2M in donations for #GivingTuesday

Image
Today is #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that always falls on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year Facebook is again partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to match up to $2M in donations to fundraisers held on Facebook by nonprofits. Additionally, Facebook is waiving its typical 5% fee on donations to U.S-based nonprofits all day long. It’s a big step up from last year for both groups, when Facebook only waived fees up to $500,000 and the Gates Foundation only matched $500,000 (but later increased it to $900,000 as the original milestone was hit within hours). Last year on Giving Tuesday Facebook raised $6.79M total via their fundraising platform, and $168M was raised worldwide by all participants. Matching for U.S nonprofits will be capped at $50,000, or $1,000 per fundraiser or donate button until the $2M matching limit is hit. This $1,000 limit means that the most successful nonprofits will have lots of individual fundraisers and donate ...
Read more

Facebook and Twitter to co-operate in Brexit probe

Image
Image copyright Getty Images Facebook and Twitter have agreed to share information with the UK government about possible Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Facebook said it hoped to be able to respond to questions from the Electoral Commission by mid-December. The Commission is investigating activity in the period leading up to the Brexit vote. Twitter said it hoped to share its own findings "in the coming weeks". The BBC understands that Google is also cooperating with the Electoral Commission's request. The US is conducting a similar investigation into potential Russian meddling in the presidential election. The two social media giants were responding to a letter from Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, also requesting information about Russian-linked account activity in the build-up to the EU referendum. Facebook's policy director Simon Milner said the firm was "considering how we can bes...
Read more

Facebook and Twitter to provide Brexit disinformation reports soon

Image
A UK parliamentary committee that’s investing fake news has been told by Facebook and Twitter they will provide information relating to Russian interference during the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum vote in the coming weeks. With election disinformation being publicly interrogated in the US, questions have increasingly been asked in the UK about whether foreign government agents also sought to use social channels to drive Brexit propaganda and sway voters. Last month Damian Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, wrote to Facebook and Twitter asking them to look into whether Russian-backed accounts had been used to try to influence voters in the June 2016 in/out EU referendum. The Guardian reports that Collins has also asked senior representatives from the two companies to give evidence on the reach of fake news at the British embassy in Washington in February. Earlier this month, the UK prime minister cranked up the political pressure by...
Read more