Digital Planet27 Apr 2021

Indians tweeting for oxygen

The latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting India has caused heart-breaking shortages of essential medical equipment across the country. As hospitals run out of beds and basic supplies like oxygen, citizens are turning to sites like Twitter and Instagram to source medicines, exchange knowledge and hold the government accountable. Ananya Bhattacharya from Quartz India explains how social media has influenced the response to the pandemic.

Illegal Brick Kilns in Bangladesh In Bangladesh, the brick making industry provides thousands of jobs and supports the country’s rapid industrialisation – but the kilns used to make the bricks can be heavily polluting. Laws aim to mitigate the environmental and health impacts, but many brick factories have not implemented these changes. Dr Nina Brooks and her research team at Stanford University have developed an AI model that uses satellite imagery to identify which kilns are operating illegally, and hope that it can be used to encourage more factories to abide by the law.

EU and AI regulation This week the EU Commission published proposals to ban “AI systems considered a clear threat to the safety, livelihoods, and rights of people” and to increase the legal regulations of biometric data, such as facial recognition software. Technology journalist and independent researcher Dr. Stephanie Hare joins the show live to explain the proposals and their likely impacts in Europe and across the world.

(Image: Instagram)

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(193)

Tech Life

How is technology changing our lives? Search for Tech Life wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe or follow if you can.

5 Mai 202334s

Digital Planet says goodbye

On Digital Planet’s final ever show we discuss the legacy of Gordon Moore, the father of transistors and creator of Moore’s law.Special guests this week are Angelica Mari and Ghislaine Boddington.The ...

28 Mar 202352min

3D printed food – what’s cooking?

Could 3D-printing be serving us up a tasty food revolution, or is it the ultimate in gimmicky processed foods taking us yet further away from natural eating? In the kitchen, a 3D-printer builds up cus...

21 Mar 202352min

Jimmy Wales on bots and blockages

Digital Planet caught up with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. In the first of two interviews with Gareth, Jimmy explains why Wikipedia was restricted in Pakistan recently and how they overcame the bloc...

14 Mar 202351min

Digital identity: Where are we now?

It may seem that in some countries surveillance cameras are everywhere – recording almost our every move. We are using fingerprints and facial recognition to get access to our banking, work emails and...

7 Mar 202338min

Ukraine’s drone spotting app

As Ukraine enters the second year of the full-scale Russian invasion, we hear about an app through which citizens can help alert defence authorities of air attacks. To help prevent future attacks, the...

28 Feb 202342min

Data in disaster zones

After the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Northern Syria, how do you collate data to aid those coordinating the disaster response? Cecilia Utas from DEEP (Data Entry and Exploration Platform) exp...

21 Feb 202346min

Internet shutdowns around the world

Within hours of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake across Turkey and northern Syria, the internet in Turkey was partially shutdown. And it wasn’t just because of damage to network infrastructure from the qu...

14 Feb 202335min