The Economics of the Internet of Things
As everyday objects get connected, brace yourself for network effects, says one economist.Product companies compete by building ever bigger factories to turn out ever cheaper widgets. But a very...
View ArticleIn Praise of Efficient Price Gouging
Uber’s most important innovation is the way it prices its services. But that innovation has not been unreservedly welcomed by customers. They’re wrong.
View ArticleA Failure to Treat Workers with Respect Could Be Uber’s Achilles’ Heel
Disruptive technology platforms are only as good as the human resources they leverage.Technology can create new business models and transform existing businesses, but it takes more than technical...
View Article2014 in Numbers: Huge Valuations, Shocking Security Stats, and a Big Climate...
From Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp to the possibility of peak coal in China, the numbers told the tale.Compelling technology stories in 2014 could be told through some of the numbers behind them.
View ArticlePeter Thiel Backs Biotech “Unicorn” Fighting Cancer Stem Cells
Are stem cells at the root of common cancers? A startup named Stemcentrx thinks so.In 2002, Scott Dylla, a skinny postdoc with a Minnesota accent, answered a Craigslist ad for a room for rent in Palo...
View ArticleWork in Transition
Digital technologies are changing the nature of the jobs we do. What does that mean for the future of work?About five years ago, machine learning reached a point where software could, with guidance...
View ArticleLyft’s Search for a New Mode of Transport
How Uber’s archenemy plans to make the world a better place by building a kind of public transit system from private cars.We were all in the car with Alexandr, listening to techno, which was his...
View ArticleWhen Your Boss Is an Uber Algorithm
Researchers examine how Uber steers its drivers’ behavior with its automated management system, despite its promise of being “your own boss.”It sends texts with last-minute requests for extra shifts...
View ArticleWhat Robots and AI Learned in 2015
It was the year that self-driving cars became a commercial reality; robots gained all sorts of new abilities; and some people worried about the existential threat posed by super-intelligent future...
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