HSINCHU, Taiwan — Burn Lin knows the ins and outs of the tiny chips that power your phones, cars and gaming consoles, and he knows there aren’t enough workers to keep up with skyrocketing demand. The electrical engineer started his career at IBM in 1970 but eventually returned to his roots in Taiwan where his work…
On the Shelf Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter By Kate Conger and Ryan MacPenguin Press: 480 pages, $32 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. Elon Musk is nearly as inescapable as Donald Trump. The owner of SpaceX and…
SAN FRANCISCO — When Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, it marked a new era for the struggling San Francisco company. As the deal neared completion, Musk, the eccentric entrepreneur known for leading Tesla and SpaceX, tweeted, “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” with a video of him carrying a white sink into…
Approximately 600 times a day, the esophagus ferries whatever is in your mouth down to your stomach. It’s usually a one-way route, but sometimes acid escapes the stomach and travels back up. That can damage the cells lining the esophagus, prompting them to grow back with genetic mistakes. About 22,370 times a year in the…
Amid an outbreak of recent wildfires in California, Google announced a commitment to spend $13 million to improve satellite imaging to help track and detect wildfires, starting as early as next year. FireSat, a constellation of more than 50 satellites, will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom, about…
SAN FRANCISCO — After 17 years wielding power and influence on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Aaron Peskin is facing a rather existential moment: Has this famously liberal city moved too far right to embrace an old-school progressive like him for mayor? Peskin, a slight man of 60 with a full beard and glasses, has…
In its relentless search for ways to weave digital products into people’s lives, Big Tech has achieved some big wins. Smart phones are ubiquitous. Apple Watch users talk to their wrists. Artificial intelligence-powered assistants are everywhere. But convincing people to wear computers on their faces has been a dud. So far, at least. Augmented reality…
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a handful of artificial intelligence-related bills that would give actors more protection over their digital likenesses and fight against the spread of deepfakes in political ads, among other regulations aimed at the fast-rising technology. “They were important election integrity bills that are long overdue,” Newsom said in…
On Aug. 29, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1047 — the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act — and sent it to Gov. Gavin Newsom for signature. Newsom’s choice, due by Sept. 30, is binary: Kill it or make it law. Acknowledging the possible harm that could come from advanced…
Major social media platforms and video streaming services that gather a “staggering” amount of data from their users have failed to protect young people and safeguard online privacy, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. “These surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identity theft…
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