Explore
Search results
The award-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato has been called the “world’s scariest economist.” Why? She challenges us to reconsider capitalism as it exists today. Focusing on innovation-led, inclusive, and sustainable growth, Mazzucato examines the critical — and misunderstood — role that governments play in fostering innovation. Her latest book, The Value of Everything,...
Silicon Valley is notoriously a boys’ club, perhaps to society’s detriment. What effects do discrimination and inequality in this sector have on our culture, society, and economy? What happens to technology when the executives, engineers, and designers who produce it are mostly male? Who are our most powerful advocates for diversity in the tech industry, and how are they f...
As technology drives economic change, the discussion of the future of work seems to be binary: either dystopian or rose colored. The public policy debate has congealed around a set of silver bullet solutions — from universal basic income to coding for all — that reflect Silicon Valley’s strategy for addressing economic inequality. But what if the best strategy isn’t a sing...
Cryptocurrency is largely seen as an investment vehicle in the United States, with regular reporting on its value in the marketplace. But in other countries, especially in the developing world, such currencies are increasingly used for routine transactions, displacing more traditional money. There is growing trust and interest in this blockchain-based mechanism for both tr...
Stolen medical records are worth more than financial data. If your Social Security number gets into the wrong hands, the cost to society is a dime. If your credit card is hacked, that loss is worth a quarter. But your medical records? They are valued at more than $1,000. Hackers scrape medical records for personal information that can be used to file fake insurance claims,...
In their new book, co-authors and Stanford professors Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami argue that big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values. In this conversation, they outline steps we should take to change course and renew democracy.
Two champions of free speech, one of whom sits on the Facebook Oversight Board, delve into the legal and ethical implications of content moderation online. How do social networks strike a balance between societal values, individual expression, and online safety? How should we find an equilibrium between open dialogue and harmful content?
From election meddling and economic espionage to financial fraud and personal identity theft, it’s becoming clear that cybersecurity is increasingly central to every aspect of the way we live. Both state-sponsored cyber-spies and transnational organized crime groups pose urgent threats online to our nation’s critical infrastructure, our security, and our fundamental values...
For the last twenty years, technology has been the most powerful force of globalization, but it now appears that the next decades will be defined by how the world splinters into different tech camps—changes driven by societal values, human rights, and nationalistic interests. Advanced technologies—from 5G to semiconductors to quantum computing—are the new currency of power...
Determining what people must have to survive and thrive is a moving target in our increasingly connected world. Many would argue that we have reached an inflection point where access to the Internet is absolutely essential. With the Internet’s role in ensuring communication and freedom of expression, not to mention access to education and the work force, who should pay for...
Technology used to be a lot more accessible, open, and ethical. It was driven by optimistic tinkerers rather than big companies. That changed. The entire industry and ecosystem is now ruled by a handful of companies rather than upstarts. American tech giants are now among the most powerful institutions in the world, rivaling governments in their power over media, culture,...
Culture is to a company as community is to a city: it's about values, innovation, serendipity, participation, upward mobility, and attraction of smart startups and the creative class. Tony Hsieh is applying his successful Zappos corporate culture model to help build the most community-focused large city in the world in the place you would least expect it: downtown Las Vega...
Artificial intelligence has rapidly and deeply permeated our lives; and for much of the public, these infiltrations were unexpected — some even remain unrecognized. As we develop machines driven by human-created algorithms, it is imperative for us to examine how our moral and ethical biases and assumptions inform our creations, which will in turn change the world. Can and...
Rebecca Blumenstein on gender, journalism, and protecting democracy through news.
The advent of NFTs as a means of selling artwork raises many questions about creative practice and the marketplace. Do NFTs as a category of collectables work in tandem with or replace three-dimensional art objects? What does it mean for traditional gatekeepers of artistic value, including art dealers and museum curators, to be faced with a new means of conveying work from...
A large, unsettling question looming among Washington regulators, lawmakers, and now state Attorney’s General across the US is whether the time has come to break up the big five: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Apple. Have these powerful tech companies, once the darlings of the start-up community not twenty years past, become so dominant that they are stifling competiti...
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other hatreds are thriving today, and nowhere are they more rampant, vitriolic, and dangerously unchecked than in cyberspace. Learn how an innovative, high-tech initiative of the Anti-Defamation League and Omidyar Networks will take the fight against hate to the online arenas where it’s thriving, combining state-of-the-art technolog...