for more responsible technology
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose", French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr famously said in 1849. Fittingly, the more tech changes, the more it stays the same. With the special exception that each hype cycle now seems to spin several magnitudes faster than the previous one... regardless of whether it's based on something true … Continue reading Why we shouldn’t believe (all) the (generative) AI hype
It's news to noone that we're on the brink of climate catastrophe. COP27 was moreorless the letdown it was predicted to be. Former Irish President Mary Robinson even feared that many world leaders there were close to giving up on the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C this century. What's tech got … Continue reading Your tech use impacts the planet. Here’s how to reduce it
UPDATE, Nov. 2022: since this article was first published early 2022, FTX, one of the world's biggest crypto exchanges, collapsed spectacularly, taking $8bn in customers' money with it; NFTs' value has plummeted; and Meta has laid off 11,000 people, which *somewhat* questions the validity of investing billions in the metaverse... The maddening thing about technology … Continue reading Why we shouldn’t believe all the web3 hype
Tech is now bigger than ever. Despite - or thanks to? - the pandemic, the sector gathered over 42,000 people in Lisbon this week, for Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech event. Yes, it was as brimming with Silicon Valley bravado as you’d expect. Yet this year, there was a major difference: the biggest crowds were … Continue reading Tech’s n°1 critics are now its biggest stars
Not very, judging by the news that Italian courts have just demanded that food platforms pay €773m in fines, regularise 60,000 gig economy workers with standard rights — pay for their bikes, for example — and face legal proceedings if they don’t comply within 90 days. This is just the latest in a series of … Continue reading How responsible is ordering your food online?
Goodbye, 2020! You won't be missed. And as vaccines start to be administered worldwide, we can be reasonably hopeful the crisis will end in 2021. The other good news is that pressure on big tech to be more responsible is not easing up at all, au contraire. Whence these reasons why, this year, technology may … Continue reading How tech *might* get better than ever in 2021
I've updated this post from its original version, written last August. Since then, countries like the UK have slipped back into lockdown, and even rebellious Sweden is preparing to limit its citizens' movements, such is the extent of the dreaded second wave. Still, the only real change is that working from home has lost some … Continue reading 8 ways the crisis has made tech better
Depending on where we live, we're now up between two and three weeks into Covid-19-caused confinement, meaning most of us with 'non-essential' jobs are stuck inside, working from home. Which brings its lot of non-digital challenges (home schooling, anyone?) But above all, we're more dependent on technology than ever. All interactions with colleagues are limited … Continue reading How to stay sane online (especially now) – tips from Shine Offline’s Laura Willis
Much is said - including here - about tech’s negative impact on society. But what if, whilst GAFAM’s greenwashing continues, thousands of smaller enterprises - and even some of the biggest ones - were working to literally make the world better, with tech? This was our takeaway from changeNOW, the third edition of an ecology-focused … Continue reading How tech, big and small, may be saving the planet after all
Besides his 'day job' as London-based Editor-at-large for TechCrunch, it is above all Mike Butcher's side gigs that have made him one of today's most prominent tech-for-good actors. As well as founding Techfugees in 2015 — this major organisation now uses startup skills to help millions of refugees worldwide, as we covered last year — … Continue reading Social media algorithms’ “complete moral vacuity”, Techfugees, politics & more – interview with tech-for-good pioneer Mike Butcher
BetterTech 