Facebook apologizes after translation fail leads to false arrest

No translation service is perfect, but you wouldn’t expect it to get you arrested. Facebook admitted that an error in its artificial intelligence-based auto-translation feature led to the arrest of a Palestinian man who posted “good morning” on his social profile. The man, a construction worker in the West Bank near Jerusalem, posted a picture of himself […]

Corbyn: Let workers control robots

Image copyright AFP Robots in the workplace should be owned and controlled by workers rather than bosses, Jeremy Corbyn will suggest. The Labour leader, who has previously warned of the risk to jobs of automation, will say new technology has led to “a more rapacious and exploitative form of capitalism”. He will also suggest “gig […]

Facebook translates ‘good morning’ into ‘attack them’, leading to arrest

Palestinian man questioned by Israeli police after embarrassing mistranslation of caption under photo of him leaning against bulldozer.   Facebook has apologised after an error in its machine-translation service saw Israeli police arrest a Palestinian man for posting good morning on his social media profile. The man, a construction worker in the West Bank settlement […]

Under the skin: how insertable microchips could unlock the future

Volunteers in Melbourne have had microchips inserted for three months, designed to unlock doors and carry out other tasks. Will they really be any use?   The microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and usually inserted in the webbing between the thumb and forefinger using a needle the same thickness as […]