A Senate committee plans to question the companies on how algorithms and machine learning on internet platforms influence the public.

Computers can master some tasks—like playing a game of Go—through trial and error. But what works for a game doesn’t work for risky real-world tasks like driving a car, where “losing” might involve a high-speed collision. To drive safely, humans have an exquisite feedback system: our fight-or-flight response, in which physiological reactions like a rapid heart rate and sweaty palms signal “fear,” and so keep us vigilant and, theoretically, out of trouble. Now, researchers at Micros...

Everyone has that spot in their house or car where they let the mail and receipts pile up. For 68-year old Jimmie Smith, it was an old shirt hanging in his closet. Stuffed in its pockets was a stack of unchecked lottery tickets. "I always told myself, 'I'll check them when I have the time,'" the New Jersey man said. It's a good thing he did. Because had he waited two days longer, he'd have lost out on $24.1 million.

A literature professor at Manchester Metropolitan University recently unearthed a legendary manuscript: a 200-page work titled The Clockwork Condition by A Clockwork Orange’s Anthony Burgess. Don’t get too excited, Droog lovers. Colin Dwyer at NPR reports that Condition is not a sequel to the cult novel, but rather a meditation on the “condition of modern man” that was to be structured similarly to Dante’s Inferno. The manuscript was also something of a cash grab. After the release and...

Long live the king of laptop tech support! Apple's got a history of agents answering issues accurately with a polite, friendly manner. While we'd love it if Apple would answer questions on Facebook (there's a lot of business communication tech in Messenger), the combination of Twitter, live online chats, its support app and phone calls provides a solid base for the company's support. Oh, and there's also the Genius Bar, which is widely available, thanks to its placement ...

The woman lives alone, but she's rarely lonely. Friends stop by most mornings, and a niece looks in weekly. Still, most of her afternoons and evenings are spent sitting in her chair, looking at the clouds and sky through a picture window. The caller sounded nice. "Good afternoon," he said in a cheery voice, asking whether he could use her first name. She couldn't remember entering the sweepstakes, but he assured her that she had and that it didn't matter: What matters, h...

In the battle between Washington and Huawei, there has long been the taunt from Shenzhen that U.S. officials have failed to produce any evidence of actual collusion between the telecom equipment giant and the Chinese state. Has that now changed? On Saturday, the Times reported that such evidence exists, it has just not been openly published. According to the newspaper's U.K. source, Huawei "has received funding from branches of Beijing’s state security apparatus...

Israeli probe Beresheet didn't make it to the moon in one piece, but one of its most intriguing pieces of cargo might have. At this moment, it's possible there's a new crater on the lunar surface created by the spacecraft's crash landing, and in that impact zone is a metal disc containing a full copy of Wikipedia, the history of the world and magician David Copperfield's secrets, among many other things.

You’ve probably heard about microdosing, the “productivity hack” popular among Silicon Valley engineers and business leaders. Microdosers take regular small doses of LSD or magic mushrooms. At these doses, they don’t experience mind-bending, hallucinatory trips, but they say they get a jolt in creativity and focus that can elevate work performance, help relationships, and generally improve a stressful and demanding daily life. If its proponents are to be believed, microdosing offers the ...

Apple is expected to unveil iOS 13, the next major version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 3rd. Now, people familiar with the development of the operating system have shared exclusive details with 9to5Mac. Read on for new details about what to expect.

When he’s not on the road with his guitar, Texas musician Willie Nelson spends time at his Texas ranch, dubbed “Luck Ranch” by the singer. Some 70 horses roam there, all of which were rescued by Nelson; most of them were slated for the slaughterhouse. The name “Luck” suits the ranch in more ways than one. Nelson likes to say, “When you’re here, you’re in Luck, and when you’re not, you’re out of Luck,” explains Paul Venema from KSAT 12 News, who interviewed the singer.

A machine called the "Sperm Extractor" is hitting off in many hospitals across China. The machine is basically for those people who can't or doesn't want to jerk off by themselves. Well, now men won't have to keep a hold of their Weiner as they can stick their business into the $6,535 machine and be done with it. And the machine will make you feel as real as you're right into the real deal thanks to its will vaginal environment stimulator.

An African hunter who claims to have killed more than 5,000 elephants says he is 'totally unrepentant' about the deaths he has caused. Ron Thomson, 77, who worked in Africa's national parks for almost six decades, claims he was not hunting the animals for pure sport but was managing population that would otherwise have got out of control.

Not much is official when it comes to Marvel Studios’ plans after Avengers: Endgame. Two things that are, though: Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is out in July, and a third Guardians of the Galaxy movie which, as you well know, has been a whole other headache. Most fans assumed that if writer/director James Gunn hadn’t been fired by Disney before being rehired several months later, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 would have been in theaters May 2020...

So far this year there have been 387 confirmed U.S. measles cases, more than 2018’s full-year total and the second-largest number since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease has spread to 15 states in 2019, with six continuing outbreaks of three or more cases each in Washington, New York, New Jersey and California. The development has sparked new policies aimed at boosting inoculation and curbing misinformation abo...