Social media has seeped into virtually all aspects of modern life. The vast social media universe collectively now holds 3.8 billion users, representing roughly 50% of the global population.

With an additional billion internet users projected to come online in the coming years, it’s possible that the social media universe could expand even further.

Here’s a closer look at individual social platforms, and their trials and tribulations: Read More

The short-sighted immigration policies of the US administration is driving top talent north of the border.

Canada’s immigration policy is hardly warm and fuzzy. On the contrary, it’s icily calculating. The government loves educated, elite newcomers, because they help propel the economy, says immigration lawyer Peter Rekai, but it wants them young, so they won’t drain the public health care system. Their parents are much less welcome.

But Toronto’s rise shows that culture also matters. The US is losing this competition not just because of bad policy; it now seems to be a dangerously racist place. One self-taught Nigerian coder I spoke to, Joseph Cobhams, dreamed of “building a product that a billion people use.” But when he visited New York City, he was stopped by police three times in two weeks.

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The brutal reality of slowdown is becoming clearer. Surveys predict 1/3 of UK companies are going to announce layoffs and zero wage rises.  Unemployment remains stubbornly high in Europe.  Despite the US adding jobs it’s still well below the long-term trend.  Recovery is not going to be driven by consumption.  New Bank NPL provisions in the US and Europe exceed $140 bln – almost as high as losses from 2008!  Even China’s much vaunted virus recovery seems stuck at 80% return to normality.

As the crisis deepens, the greed stories are beginning to leak out. If you haven’t read about the naked graft and corruption of Kodak reinventing itself as Big Pharma overnight with the help of US Govt loan, or companies paying bosses massive bonuses shortly before they go bust – then catch up. For every scam that’s been uncovered, hundreds are probably occurring – slipping under the radar because of the incessant deluge of bad news.. These stories are inflaming already frustrated voters. Full Story

THIS MONTH, ADVERTISING giant WPP will send unusual corporate training videos to tens of thousands of employees worldwide. A presenter will speak in the recipient’s language and address them by name, while explaining some basic concepts in artificial intelligence. The videos themselves will be powerful demonstrations of what AI can do: The face, and the words it speaks, will be synthesized by software.

WPP doesn’t bill them as such, but its synthetic training videos might be called deepfakes, a loose term applied to images or videos generated using AI that look real. Although best known as tools of harassment, porn, or duplicity, image-generating AI is now being used by major corporations for such anodyne purposes as corporate training. Read More