Through Google’s revolutionary AI system, researchers were able to successfully predict cardiovascular problems including heart attacks and strokes. The approach relies exclusively on retina images.

According to Google officials, the new detection method uses machine learning techniques instead of relying on existing diagnostics to predict cardiovascular issues.

The results of the Google AI research were published in the journal, Nature Biomedical Engineering.

According to the tech company, medical researchers have proven the link between the risk of a major cardiovascular episode and retinal vessels. By analyzing a retinal image, the Google AI was reportedly able to quantify this link and predict with 70 percent accuracy which patient would experience a heart attack or other major cardiovascular incident within five years.

The Google AI algorithm was fed data from 284,335 patients and validated the information on two independent data sets of 12,026 and 999 patients.

According to Lily Peng, MD, a product manager and lead researcher on the project, the algorithm was able to distinguish between the retinal images of a smoker and those of a non-smoker with 71 percent accuracy. This was 21 percent higher than what human experts could achieve.

Peng acknowledged that further data needs to be analyzed in order raise the algorithm’s accuracy.

“We think that the accuracy of this prediction will go up a little bit more as we kind of get more comprehensive data.” Peng said.

More so, the Google AI’s algorithm could delve even further and predict the systolic blood pressure within 11 mmHg on average for patients overall, this including those with high and low blood pressure.

The algorithm currently works by generating a graphical representation of data, called a “heatmap”, revealing which pixels in the retinal image were the most important for predicting a specific health issue. In the case of predicting blood pressure levels, the Google AI focused more on blood vessels.

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Video-sharing website, YouTube, had some of its ads repurposed by hackers to hijack video viewers’ processing power to mine cryptocurrency. According to several reports, the code had been inserted in the JavaScript of the ads to mine CoinHive’s cryptocurrency, Monero. YouTube currently boasts with a whopping 1.5 billion users worldwide, making them an obvious target for hackers.

The mining code would reportedly drain up to 80 percent of viewers’ CPU power, a process which was enabled by either watching or clicking a specific YouTube advert link. This issue was identified last week when users reported their antivirus programmes detecting covert mining whilst watching YouTube adverts.

On Sunday, cyber-security research company, Trend Micro, published a blog post revealing a 285 percent increase in the number of CoinHive miners on Wednesday, January 24. They traced the activity to five domains, one of which was a subsidiary company owned by Google, called DoubleClick Advertisement. The cryptocurrency mining occurred in several countries, according to Trend Micro, which includes France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Taiwan.

YouTube’s owner, Google, issued a statement that informed all of its users that it has fixed the issue. A Google representative said that the ads responsible for the mining have been blocked and all the accounts responsible for the ads had been removed. According to media sources, the company used a detection system that monitored newly submitted ads for two hours. Hackers usually upload clean adverts for validation after which they would swap them for a malicious JavaScript once the original ad went live.

“Mining cryptocurrency through ads is a relatively new form of abuse that violates our policies and one that we’ve been monitoring actively,” said Google in a statement.

One way in which users can avoid becoming victims of rogue cryptocurrency mining is to disable auto-running JavaScripts in browsers.

Social media platform, Facebook, wants its users to give the Messenger app another chance. Facebook Messenger Vice President, David Marcus, listed a series of predictions for the texting app, many of which have to do with streamlining the user experience.

As Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg previously stated in a blog post, the platform will focus more on creating meaningful interactions between its users. This means pushing back brand advertisements or passive content to make way for more user posts. The changes will become apparent throughout the year, thanks to Facebook’s drive to overhaul its News Feed.  Thus, it makes sense for the Messenger app to fall in line with Zuckerberg’s vision of promoting user experience. The first issue that the company aims to solve is the app’s complexity.

“The app became too cluttered,” wrote Marcus on Tuesday “Over the last two years, we built a lot of capabilities to find the features that continue to set us apart. A lot of them have found their product market fir; some haven’t,”

In the post titled,’ Six Trends of 2018’, Marcus acknowledged that not all features were there to ease user experience. He says that Facebook will invest more in simplifying and streamlining Messenger this year.

More so, the Facebook executive predicts that the messaging market will lean towards visual messaging rather than being purely text-based. According to Marcus, people will expect highly responsive cameras, GIFs, stickers, and videos. He states that even formal environments such as workplaces will adopt emojis and videos to simplify ideas.

Facebook added emoji characters and other similar features to Messenger in the past two years. According to the Facebook executive, Messenger had 17 billion video chats in 2017, two times as many as compared to the year before.

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American multinational conglomerate, General Motors (GM), is paving the way to a driverless future. The company submitted a federal safety proposal on Thursday for a vehicle which has no steering wheel or gas pedal. Dubbed the Chevrolet Cruise AV, the robotic car is slated to hit the roads in 2019.

General Motors filed a petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the hopes of getting permission to deploy autonomous. The cars will be built on the Chevrolet Bolt EV platform. In addition, the petition also seeks permission to meet 16 safety requirements which will be tailored “in a different way” for the driverless vehicle.

The Detroit-based automaker said that the Chevrolet Cruise AV will be designed with self-opening doors and will offer accommodation for hearing and visually impaired customers.

“What’s really special about this is if you look back 20 years from now, it’s the first car without a steering wheel and pedals,” said Kyle Voigt, chief executive officer of Cruise Automation, the unit responsible for developing the software for GM’s self-driving cars.

The automaker will first test its autonomous vehicles in a ride-sharing program starting in 2019. GM also took into account the obvious worries surrounding a completely driverless car and installed a few safeguards. Besides applying for federal permission, the company said that the upcoming vehicles will travel on a pre-appointed route controlled by their mapping system. More so, Voigt explained that the Chevrolet Bolt has built-in systems designed to back the driving system. If the car’s software were to break down, it would slow down and pull over to the roadside and stop.

GM’s foray into autonomous vehicles is nothing new, although the upcoming car will still be one of the of its kind in commercial passenger service. Such breakthroughs are also being explored by startup, Zoox Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit.

GM’s pursuit of a federally approved vehicle won’t be without its obstacles, however. Federal safety regulation language is specially tailored to human drivers and vehicles designed to be driven by a human driver. Proving that their technology is safe would require the federal government to restructure its commercial driving legislation. Besides this, the company will also have to negotiate implementing their new cars on a state level. If GM receives federal approval, they would be able to deploy the Chevrolet Cruise AV only in seven states at first. These include Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado, Texas, and Nevada.

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Several dozen emails belonging to high-ranking Microsoft and Amazon officials requesting prostitution services have been uncovered. Out of all those emails, 67 were sent from Microsoft employee accounts while 63 were from Amazon. These aren’t the only tech giants whose employees were busted as sources state hundreds of incriminating emails from companies including Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and other local firms in the Seattle area have been found.

A media source was able to obtain several emails that were sent to brothels and pimps between 2014 and 2016, detailing how brothels work and how people would buy trafficked sex worker’s services.  The publication was able to get a hold of these back and forth exchanges via a public record request made to the Prosecutor’s Office in King County. In addition, the emails were “often disguised as replies to wrong addresses.”

According to local authorities, Seattle’s sex industry can be considered on par with the city’s booming tech industry. They claim that some men can spend up to $50 thousand per year for prostitution services.

A large portion of these emails was made available after a sting operation which occurred in 2015, where 18 people were arrested including high-ranking directors from Amazon and Microsoft.

Sources claim that tech employees would use their work accounts because Seattle pimps require first-time customers to send certified credentials as to prove that they are not with the police.

Some studies point out that the tech industry relies heavily on sex workers, and in this case, on Asian prostitutes. Seattle authorities state that trafficked Asian women service hundreds of men each day in the city.

In the wake of these discoveries, Microsoft has issued a statement in which they condemn these types of “unethical” activities. Even so, the tech giant has said that the actions of a “tiny fraction” of its workforce do not represent their work culture in any way.

“Microsoft makes it clear to our employees they have a responsibility to act with integrity and conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner at all times.” Said Microsoft in its statement.

Amazon has also responded in a similar manner, where they referred to the company’s Owner Manual. In it, Amazon points out that any employee or Contingent Worker that engages in any sex buying activities is against the company’s policy.

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Smartwatch sales keep soaring and Apple is arguably the leader of the manufacturing pack. But in order to remain a leader in an over-saturated industry, you need to either improve on existing features or add new ones. The tech giant has reportedly chosen the latter option, as sources suggest future Apple Watch models may contain an advanced form of heart-monitoring tech.

The new feature will reportedly be able to use electric signals to detect heart defects as well as other potential factors of cardiovascular illness. According to media sources, Apple will base the new tech on EKGs, which are commonly used to monitor subtle electrical patterns in between heartbeats.

The tech will begin to record heart activity as soon as you press two buttons located on either side of the device. It would then send an electrical signal through the body to track heart activity and detect any irregularities.

According to several sources, the EKG functionality for the new Apple Watch is still being tested and the company may still choose to scrap it if it doesn’t perform great. This wouldn’t be the first time Apple abandoned an idea, as they stated that they had to drop several sensors for their first Apple Watch because they weren’t accurate enough.

Apple has expressed interest in medical technologies as of late. In November the company launched the Apple Heart Study app, which was developed in partnership with Stanford University’s  School of Medicine. The study was one of countless others forays conducted since 2015 with the sole purpose of detecting cardiovascular diseases in its Apple Watch users.

While it is unclear if the new EKG feature will require FDA approval, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has previously stated that he doesn’t want federal certification.

Last month, the FDA approved a built-in EKG reader for a watch strap, developed by medical tech company, AliveCor.

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Social media platform, Facebook, is taking a firm stance against content that requires user engagement. These types of posts are most commonly known as clickbait, and require people to “Like” or share or comment to boost engagement numbers.

Facebook has announced on Monday that it will demote content that specifically urges its users to increase its visibility.

There are lots of examples already available on the digital platforms some of which include tagging a friend who belongs to a zodiac sign or sharing a brand to grow its audience. These types of posts have been officially dubbed by Facebook as “engagement bait”.

“Teams at Facebook have reviewed and categorized hundreds of thousands of posts to inform a machine learning model that can detect different types of engagement bait,” the company has stated in a blog post.

According to the company, the targeted content will be shown less in a user’s News Feed and the page owners who resort to such tactics will be penalized. Administrators of said pages are encouraged by Facebook to focus on posting relevant and “meaningful” stories on its platform.

While the update is expected to roll out in a matter of weeks, the platform’s current algorithm still promotes posts that get high engagement from users and shows them to more people. As of Monday, these posts will be temporarily pushed down in News Feeds and subsequently limited by the platform in the following weeks. According to the blog post, repeat offenders will be penalized, however, it remains to be seen how this will be done.

These loopholes have been thoroughly analyzed by the company following negative user feedback. They concluded that people do not like to be goaded into interacting with likes, shares, comments, and other actions on a daily basis, according to Facebook.

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Tokyo-based start-up, ispace, has raised $90 million from several Japanese companies, including Japan Airlines Co. And TV network Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings Inc. The company has announced on Wednesday that it will use the money to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2019, and then land in 2020.

Ispace has set a new record in Japan, for the most money received by a start-up in the seeding phase of a business, commonly called the „Series A” phase. Takeshi Hakamada, the start-up’s CEO, said that their lunar lander will pave the way for a flexible and highly-trafficked lunar transportation system. In addition, they want to establish a beacon for exploration and development of the lunar surface via micro-robotic systems.

„We’re going to bring scientific instruments to the moon, and then seel the right to use our data to space agencies and other institutions, as well as provide transportation services, for profit.” said the ispace CEO.

However, before undertaking such a revolutionary endeavor, ispace needs to make its backing companies happy. Ispace wants to place a billboard where companies can pay to advertise their product to a population of billions. Their future spacecrafts and rovers will also have various corporate logos attached to the sides.

Ispace estimates that one thousand people will be living on the moon by 2021. More so, they predict that with their help, that number will increase ten times each year.

While Hakamada is currently set on providing a new advertising venue for companies, he wants his company to create a sustainable eco-system on the Moon.

Google is currently holding a $30 million competition called Lunar XPRIZE, with the winner being the first team to reach the moon. Not only that, but they will also have to travel 500 meters across its surface and take photos. While ispace is involved in the competition, Hakamada said their latest investment is not for the Lunar XPRIZE but rather for resource utilization on the moon.

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Twitter has announced that the platform will soon get a new feature, one which it will allow its users to post tweetstorms. This series of connected tweets have enjoyed a surge in popularity as of late, with users dismissing Twitter’s word count limitation by chaining longer thoughts in multiple posts. The company has been testing the new “threads” feature on both its iOS and Android apps, Twitter confirmed in November.

While the concept of tweetstorms has never been an official Twitter feature, the company took note of people’s tendency to express longer thoughts on the same subject across multiple tweets.

This is also a response to the backlash that Twitter had received over the years from its users who criticized the platform for its 140 character count limit, something which the company recently doubled.

Users realized early on that a character limit would only take away from their stories and would not be able to get their message across. Twitter acknowledged that there are hundreds of thousands of unofficial threads being posted on a daily basis.

“…we know people also may want to serialize a longer story or thought, or provide ongoing commentary on an event or topic. That’s where this update to threads comes in!” the company wrote in a blog post.

The new “threads” feature will allow users to string together tweets by tapping a new plus icon located where you normally write your tweets.

After posting a thread, the first tweet will appear in the timeline just like any other post. The difference is, that tweet will also contain two more tweets from the thread. Followers who want to see the rest will need to tap the “show this thread” button.

Twitter confirmed in its blog post that the threads button is one of the latest user-created features to become official products within the app. While a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen was one of the first users on the platform who took advantage of the unofficial feature in 2014, the habit of posting long, detailed tweets boomed after the 2016 election. This is when Twitter transformed into a more prominent forum where you could discuss current events.

According to the company, the new “threads” feature will be rolling out on Android, iOS as well as online “in the coming weeks”.

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The Australian government is reportedly investigating tech juggernauts, Google and Facebook, for their role in disrupting the news media in the country. This inquiry, started by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), will examine how new digital platforms are affecting Australian media and advertising markets.

The ACCC announced on Monday that they will explore both the positive and negative impact of these social platforms in the hopes of determining whether Australians benefit from them or not.

“Through our inquiry, the ACCC will look closely at the impact of digital platforms on the level of choice and quality of news and content being produced by Australian journalists,” said ACCC chairman, Rod Sims.

Sims also said in the statement that the probe will not be biased, keeping an open mind in their study of how Facebook and Google operate in Australia. The organization will reportedly look into the longer-term trends and how technological change affects competition in media and advertising.

According to the chairman, the ACCC investigation will also explore the impact of “information asymmetry” between digital platform providers and advertisers and consumers.

The government’s decision to investigate Google and Facebook comes in the wake of poor profits and a decline in the number of newspapers across the country. Latest ACCC merger reviews have revealed that most advertisers forgo traditional print newspapers for marketing their brand in favor of digital media. Both Google and Facebook, as well as other firms, will have to cooperate with the Australian government as part of the inquiry, with possible hearings being set in the near future.

While Google has yet to respond to the ACCC’s announcement, a Facebook spokesperson assured that the company will fully cooperate.

“We look forward to a thorough inquiry into the Australian media market.” He said.

The ACCC will reportedly release a preliminary report in December 2018, followed by a full report in June 2019.

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American multinational company, Microsoft, has announced it will be revamping its 500-acre headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The decision comes as a response to the shifting landscape of architecturally-sound workplaces started in part by Microsoft’s tech rivals, Amazon and Apple.

Microsoft’s current Redmond Campus has 125 buildings that house around 48 thousand workers. Now, the company wants to „grow right here at home”, by including 18 new buildings to its headquarters as well as renovating 6.7 million square feet of workspace. The company will also improve their transportation infrastructure, public spaces, sports fields and green space.

The project is said to take five to seven years and will reportedly cost billions. Over the next several years, the company will level 12 buildings and replaced them with larger structures as well as new ones. At the end of the day, Microsoft aims to increase its housing capabilities to 55 thousand workers.

This is the tech company’s latest foray into improving their overall image, as nowadays, large tech company’s rely on their workplace appearance to attract new talent and potential investors.  Through a strong visual statement, multinational conglomerates are able to successfully compete in an oversaturated marketplace.

Tech company, Apple, has recently opened its new Apple Park Campus in April this year. Located in Cupertino, California, the campus was envisioned by  Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, before his death, and will start welcoming visitors by the end of 2017.

Besides Apple, there are companies such as Facebook and Google, who have also overhauled their headquarters to resemble overpriced spaceships.

Microsoft is also taking steps to accommodate its neighbors. The soon-to-be improved campus will include a two-acre ”open plaza” that includes retail space, sports facilities and running and walking trails. The plaza can accommodate 12 thousand people, according to Microsoft.

„We prize our relationship with the City of Redmond and will work closely with officials on the approval for campus and building architectural designs,” the company said in a statement.

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