A New Year’s resolution: Turn off computers

A New Year’s resolution: Turn off computers
by Vivek Wadhwa on 01-20-2018 at 7:00 am

Facebook’s recent acknowledgment that social media may be making its users feel bad in some cases is a significant milestone. So far, the technology industry hardly has talked about the downsides of their products. Now a realization seems to be setting in that perhaps something has gone wrong along the way.

Academic research that… Read More


Why Bitcoin is the largest Ponzi scheme in human history

Why Bitcoin is the largest Ponzi scheme in human history
by Vivek Wadhwa on 12-29-2017 at 12:00 pm

During the late ’90s, Silicon Valley venture capitalists and New York City investment bankers used phrases such as “monetizing eyeballs,” “stickiness,” and “B2C” to justify the ridiculous valuations of Internet companies. They claimed conventional methods were inapplicable in valuing the dot-com companies — which had no… Read More


China is right: The world doesn’t need Silicon Valley

China is right: The world doesn’t need Silicon Valley
by Vivek Wadhwa on 12-25-2017 at 7:00 am

Ever since the Chinese Government banned Facebook in 2009, Mark Zuckerberg has been making annual trips there attempting to persuade its leaders to let his company back in. He learned Mandarin and jogged through the smog-filled streets of Beijing to show how much he loved the country. Facebook even created new tools to allow China… Read More


Why we need new regulations to protect us from Facebook and Equifax

Why we need new regulations to protect us from Facebook and Equifax
by Vivek Wadhwa on 10-06-2017 at 12:00 pm

The theft of an estimated 143 million Americans’ personal details in a data breach of consumer-credit reporting agency Equifax and the Russian hack of the U.S. elections through Facebook had one thing in common: they were facilitated by the absence of legal protection for personal data. Though the U.S. Constitution provides… Read More


Why I remain optimistic about Tesla

Why I remain optimistic about Tesla
by Vivek Wadhwa on 08-18-2017 at 7:00 am

Tesla’s stock price recently took a hit because of concerns about its delivery capabilities and about increasing competition from carmakers who are switching their product lines to electric. With a market cap still exceeding $50 billion, it can be easy to argue that Tesla’s price remains severely inflated, especially when you… Read More


If you could ‘design’ your own child, would you?

If you could ‘design’ your own child, would you?
by Vivek Wadhwa on 08-02-2017 at 12:00 pm

Scientists in Portland, Ore., just succeeded in creating the first genetically modified human embryo in the United States, according to Technology Review. A team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University is reported to “have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating… Read More


Amazon eating Whole Foods is nothing as entire industries are about to become toast

Amazon eating Whole Foods is nothing as entire industries are about to become toast
by Vivek Wadhwa on 06-22-2017 at 12:00 pm

I doubt that Google and Microsoft ever worried about the prospect that a book retailer, Amazon, would come to lead one of their highest-growth markets: cloud services. And I doubt that Apple ever feared that Amazon’s Alexa would eat Apple’s Siri for lunch.

For that matter, the taxi industry couldn’t have imagined that a Silicon … Read More


Is AI the end of jobs?

Is AI the end of jobs?
by Vivek Wadhwa on 06-19-2017 at 12:00 pm

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing so rapidly that even its developers are being caught off guard. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in Davos, Switzerland, in January that it “touches every single one of our main projects, ranging from search to photos to ads … everything we do … it definitely surprised me, even though … Read More


The Driver in the Driverless Car

The Driver in the Driverless Car
by Vivek Wadhwa on 04-09-2017 at 8:00 am

What is the likelihood that the people building Uber’s self-driving technologies did not know that their software was highly imperfect and could endanger lives if the cars were let loose on public streets? Or that employees of Theranos did not know that their equipment would produce inaccurate diagnostics?

San Francisco has … Read More


Why 2017 is the Year of the Bot

Why 2017 is the Year of the Bot
by Vivek Wadhwa on 01-17-2017 at 12:00 pm

In the 2013 movie “Her,” Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer, falls in love with a digital assistant designed to meet his every need. She sorts emails, helps get a book published, provides personal advice and ultimately becomes his girlfriend. The assistant, Samantha, is A.I. software capable of learning at an astonishing pace.… Read More