Google finds itself in a military muddle as staff get restive

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More than 3,000 have sent a letter to the search giant's boss protesting its work with the US Department of Defense amid increasingly heated debate over AI
First it was “don’t be evil”, then it was “do the right thing”.
It appears Google staff members aren’t too sure whether their employer is living up either of those much vaunted, but admirable, principles with its work for the US Department of Defense.
At issue is the latter's Project Maven. It is using the company’s open source artificial intelligence system TensorFlow to analyse footage captured by army surveillance drones and highlight what may be of interest for human review.
It's a pilot project sparked by the fact that there's too much footage for personnel to practicably scan, but one which has prompted more than 3,000 Googlers to take the time to sign a letter to boss Sundar Pichai stating that their company “should not be in the business of war” and requesting that the project be dropped.
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Gender pay gap: worst offenders in each sector revealed as reporting deadline passes

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The worst gender pay gap offenders have been revealed after the deadline for large firms and public sector bodies to report the difference between what they pay their male and female staff passed at midnight on Wednesday.
The parent company of Millwall football club has the worst gender pay gap of any firm to publish data. The South London-based club revealed it pays women just a fifth of the amount it pays men. The figures also highlight some other organisations with large pay discrepancies in a broad range of sectors
Universities Read more How Belgium is defeating the gender pay gap Harper Adams University in Shropshire and York St John University have the joint-worst gender pay gap, paying women 37.4 per cent less than men on average.
Among the prestigious Russell Group universities in England, Durham University has the worst gender pay gap at 29.3 per cent. Six Russell Group universities reported median gender pay gaps wider than the national average of 18.4 per cent.
Counc..

Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Drug that Stops Opioid Overdoses

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Supported by Health Surgeon General Urges Americans to Carry Drug that Stops Opioid Overdoses Photo A kit containing Naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote that the surgeon general is advising more Americans to keep nearby. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times WASHINGTON — The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, issued a national advisory Thursday urging more Americans to keep on hand and learn how to use the drug, naloxone, which can save the lives of people overdosing on opioids. Naloxone has already revived thousands of overdose victims as the opioid epidemic has intensified, but rescue workers have usually been the ones to administer it.
It was the first advisory issued by a surgeon general since 2005, and it underscored the urgency of addressing an opioid epidemic that has killed more than 250,000 people over the past decade, including more than 42,000 people in 2016.
Dr. Adams said making naloxone more available in communities across the country is critic..

Common Sense: With Tesla in a Danger Zone, Can Model 3 Carry It to Safety?

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Supported by Business Day With Tesla in a Danger Zone, Can Model 3 Carry It to Safety? Photo The Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market offering, has drawn critical praise and a long waiting list of buyers. But production delays and other setbacks have clouded the company’s outlook. Credit Lucy Nicholson/Reuters As I zipped up the West Side Highway this week in a gleaming red Tesla Model 3, I found myself wondering: Are American drivers ready for Autopilot?
Autopilot is Tesla’s enhanced driver-assistance technology, which the company maintains is the most advanced autonomous-driving system available. Tesla says all its vehicles “have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.”
In this case, I was the human. I had tried a gull-wing Model X last fall with an earlier version of Autopilot, but since then the stakes — for both Tesla and consumers — have soared.
On March 23, a driver was killed in Mountain View, ..

Facebook, Amazon Buoy Wall St. As Trade Concerns Cool

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Business Day

Facebook, Amazon Buoy Wall St. As Trade Concerns Cool

(Reuters) – Facebook, Amazon and industrial stocks helped Wall Street extend its recovery on Thursday as fears over a trade war between the United States and China eased.
Technology stocks, which have taken a beating in the past three weeks, were higher.
Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Netflix – collectively known as the “FANG” group – were up between 0.8 percent and 2.6 percent.
Shares of Boeing, Caterpillar – hit the most on Wednesday after China retaliated with $50 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods such as soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft – also rose more than 1 percent.
At 9:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.57 percent at 24,403.74. The S&P 500 rose 0.37 percent to 2,654.55 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.55 percent to 7,080.71.

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The Dow bounced back from a 500 point drop on Wednesday after President Donald T..

Google staff protest company's involvement with Pentagon drones programme

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Thousands of Google staff are protesting against the use of the company’s technology in the Pentagon’s controversial drones programme.
The US Department of Defense's Project Maven, commenced last April, utilises the Silicon Valley search giant's artificial intelligence system to analyse vast amounts of footage captured by the US Army’s unmanned surveillance planes around the world.
Around 3,100 staff are thought to have signed a letter to Google boss Sundar Pichai, demanding that the company pulls out of the project.
Read more Google's decision to build AI for Pentagon drones divides company Google confirmed last month that the Pentagon was using its technology, sparking outrage among some of its employees.
A copy of the letter published in the New York Times said: “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war.
“Therefore we ask that Project Maven be cancelled, and that Google draft, publicise and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google ..

A View from the Top: Anne-Marie Curtis, editor-in-chief of ELLE UK

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An advocate for the enduring value of print, Anne-Marie Curtis talks about her rise from intern to editor-in-chief
“When I bought the first issue, I was like, ‘This is my magazine’,” says Anne-Marie Curtis of discovering Elle UK back in 1985.
Curtis got her first taste of working for Elle as an intern in the early 1990s under the late Sally Brampton, who she describes as a “brilliant, brilliant editor”. Curtis’s commitment to Elle had secured a promising start to her career.
Fast-forward to 2018 and she’s talking to me in her office, just off London’s Carnaby Street, as the title’s editor-in-chief – Wednesday marks her first anniversary in the role.
Read more Ann Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold on the tough world of retail I ask if she expects new hires to possess her level of devotion. “I don’t want to hire me,” she says. “It’s about a sense of individuality and a point of view, as well as absolutely getting what Elle is.”
Curtis knows the power of plucky ideas and clear purpose…

DealBook Briefing: Are Facebook’s Latest Privacy Changes Enough?

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Supported by Are Facebook’s Latest Privacy Changes Enough?: DealBook Briefing Photo Credit Noah Berger/Associated Press Good Thursday morning. Here’s what we’re watching:
• Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed more on how much Facebook user data may have been accessed.
• The White House is still talking tough on trade with China.
• Blackstone’s infrastructure fund isn’t doing so well.
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‘That was a huge mistake, and it was my mistake’What emerged from Facebook yesterday — in Mark Zuckerberg’s conference call with reporters and in a company blog post — were revelations that users’ public data was more compromised than previously thought.
• Facebook said Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of 87 million users, not 50 million.
• A vulnerability in search and account recovery functions may have exposed “most” of Facebook’s 2 billion users to unauthorized harvesting of their public profile information.
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Asset managers must assess value they offer investors under strict new FCA rules

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Asset managers will have to prove their value for money
Asset managers must assess each year how much value for money they offer investors, Britain’s markets watchdog said on Thursday, stopping short of tougher measures called for by critics of the 7 trillion pound sector.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said asset managers would have 18 months to prepare for a requirement from September 2019 to make an annual assessment of value, as part of their duty to act in the best interests of investors.
In a requirement that will take effect six months later than originally indicated, asset managers will have to publish their value assessments and show if any corrective action was taken if charges were identified as not being justified.
Read more UK services sector felt the chill from the Beast from the East After pressure from industry, the value for money idea floated in last year’s review has been broadened to overall value to avoid what the FCA says is too much focus on costs.
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