Google’s Chrome update uses AI to change privacy and the rules of the web
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When it comes to our online and offline activites privacy is at the top of most people’s minds, and now Google are embedding Federated AI to try to redress the balance. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses...
Satellite launch kick starts Elon Musk’s quest to connect everyone on Earth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over 3.5 billion people on the planet aren’t connected to the internet, for better or worse, and space internet is here to change that. They’ve finally done it – for years I’ve been talking about how a raft of companies were planning on launching...
Russia announces plans to temporarily disconnect itself from the global internet
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People think of the internet as one, global network, but it’s being nationalised and splintering. Many people think that the internet is one thing, one “amorphous system” that crosses borders, and is, in essence, the digital fabric that unites the world. But, as China...
Scientists find a way to turn the internet into the world’s largest earthquake detection system
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are hundreds of thousands of earthquakes a year, and a new detection system could help save lives. The internet isn’t your phone. It’s not Instagram, YouTube, or Netflix. Behind those screens the internet is actually a sprawling network of hundreds of undersea fiber optic...
A year after china beat it the US is getting it’s own hackproof quantum network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The US is increasingly falling behind China in the development of new quantum technologies, and now they’re trying to catch up. A few years ago, Edward Snowden, a contractor working for the NSA, who recently released his own surveillance application for vulnerable reporters and...
The web is broken so it’s founder is re-inventing it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The internet was supposed to empower people, but so far most of that power is being concentrated in big centralised platform companies instead. The founder of the World Wide Web thinks it’s broken and has a plan to fix it. Tim Berners-Lee, the British...
An immune system for the internet, new good samaritan malware surprises experts
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cyber attacks are getting out of control, but evolving, roving “good samaritan” forms of malware could become the new cops of the internet and the future of cybersecurity. Security researchers have discovered a very odd new botnet that, rather than posing a threat, seems...
The internet is splintering in two, one led by the US the other led by China
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As individual nation states look to assert their dominance on the global stage we are witnessing the early stages of a splintered internet with multiple standards. The internet is disappearing, being replaced instead by a fabric of connected devices, like wearables and sensor systems,...
Blockchain startups are lining up to decentralise and revolutionise the internet
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We think the internet is already decentralised, but the internet as we know it is evolving, and tomorrow’s internet will be truly decentralised. An increasing number of people want to fix the flaws of the internet by decentralizing it, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the father...
SpaceX will launch it’s global satellite internet ambitions today
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Elon Musk’s company SpaceX wants to bring high speed, quality internet access to every person on Earth, and they’re starting today. Now that the dust has settled from SpaceX’s first successful Falcon Heavy mission earlier this month, which was years in the planning, the...
Google’s Eric Schmidt says the “Internet will disappear”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the number of connected devices proliferates the internet we knew and loved is going away, and being replaced by something else, but what should we call it? It’s obvious when you think about it – the end of the Internet is drawing near...
World’s largest DDoS attack tops 1Tbps
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Botnets are exploiting security vulnerabilities in the Internet of Everything devices to launch the world’s largest DDoS attacks. Hot on the heels of the news that someone might be trying to take down the entire internet, earlier this week hosting provider OVH was overwhelmed by...
