ICE RAIDS, ROBOTIC UMPIRES & GOOGLE’S ‘SHOELACE’
FRIDAY, JULY 12TH, 2019
All the news you need in less than 10 min:
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story summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want perusing the latest happenings...
Hurricane Warning: Louisiana is getting ready for Tropical Storm Barry, which could strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane before it hits the area as soon as this weekend. Mandatory evacuations and hurricane warnings are in effect, and New Orleans is under a state of emergency.
Read more: Weather Channel, AccuWeather, ABC News, AP
ICE Raids: Massive raids to remove thousands of undocumented immigrants are set to start on Sunday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will target about 2,000 people in 10 major cities who already have deportation orders.
Read more: NYT, CNN, USA Today
Citizenship Question: Trump is backing off trying to get the citizenship question on the 2020 census, but he says he’s not “backing down” when it comes to finding out who is a U.S. citizen. Instead, he will use an executive order to require all federal agencies and departments to hand over data they have about everyone living in the U.S. to the Commerce Department. Some Democrats plan to fight it in court.
Read more: CBS News, Washington Post, NPR, Fox News
Dow Jones Record: The Dow hit a record high yesterday, climbing above 27,000 for the first time ever. The S&P 500 also hit an all-time high for the second day in a row. Investors are feeling more confident as they think the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates for the first time in a decade as soon as this month.
Read more: ABC News, WSJ
Ford & VW: Ford and Volkswagen are reportedly working together to make autonomous and electric cars. More details are expected at a press conference this morning. Volkswagen will reportedly give Ford access to a platform that could help create dozens of electric cars. Volkswagen will also invest in Ford’s research firm that specializes in self-driving cars.
Read more: Reuters, CNBC
Amazon Retrains Workforce: Amazon says it’s starting one of the world’s largest efforts to retrain employees. The company plans to invest $700 million over six years to train about a third of its workers in the U.S. for high-tech jobs. About 100,000 Amazon workers will have the option to enter training programs between now and 2025.
Read more: WSJ, Amazon, PCMag, NYT
Robotic Umpires: A computer can now call balls and strikes at a baseball game. The first “robotic umpire” was used in a minor league all-star game earlier this week. A real umpire still stood behind the plate, but he wore an earpiece to hear what the computer found and make calls for pitches. The MLB says it needs to see how it works at the minor league level before adopting it.
Read more: ESPN, Washington Post
AI Bot Poker: Researchers from Facebook’s AI lab and Carnegie Mellon University created a bot that can take on the world's best poker players. It’s called Pluribus. Other bots have beaten professional players before, but this is the first time it worked while playing more than one person at a time. The tech behind the bot could be used for applications that involve multiple people and hidden info, like fraud detection or self-driving cars.
Read more: The Verge, CNN, Engadget
Google Listening?: A Dutch media outlet found that people are being hired to transcribe what users say to the Google Assistant. Google says it happens to a small percent of the recordings to help its technology better understand language patterns, and that personal information is always kept confidential.
Read more: The Verge, AP
Google’s Shoelace: Google has a new app called “Shoelace,” which helps people connect with others at events or activities. The app will connect users with other people who like doing the same things, like playing ping pong or watching an open mic night. For now, Shoelace is invite-only and only offered in New York City. The goal is to eventually bring the app to cities nationwide.
Read more: Business Insider, TechCrunch