the Lantern editorial team

During major economic events, citizens look to their governments for credible information, guidance, and leadership. Technology used in developing smart cities could be the way forward.  Back in 2015 India launched an initiative, Smart Cities Mission. It was designed to enable cities to effectively leverage technology in improving citizen services and quality of life. This year the Indian government was able to leverage this as part of their emergency response to the pandemic. The World Economic Forum and Deloitte compiled a report on 3 Indian cities that were able to utilize this technology. The report is titled Technology [...]

Google has launched a “sensitive topics” review to tighten control over research papers written by its scientists. This might be affecting the bias and/or content of the papers. Reuters reported three cases where authors were requested to keep its technology in positive light. The new policy requires researchers to consult with legal, policy, and public relations teams before pursuing certain topics. A senior Google manager reviewing a study on content recommendation technology shortly before publication this summer told authors to "Take great care to strike a positive tone," according to internal correspondence read to Reuters. Further correspondence shows [...]

The San Francisco-based startup Ouster Inc. has agreed to go public through a merger with special acquisition company Colonnade Acquisition Corp. Ouster Inc. focuses on developing lidar sensors which are utilized in self-driving cars and smart cities. The deal is valuing the company at $1.9 billion. This is the 5th such company to agree to go public this year. The others are Velodyne Lidar Inc, Luminar, Innoviz and Aeva. Lidar sensors use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the object. This is seen as essential by many automakers to allow higher levels of [...]

Japan plans to boost its tumbling birth rate by funding artificial intelligence matchmaking systems to help residents find love. Last year the number of babies born in Japan fell below 865,000. A record low fueled by a decrease in the number of marriages and rise in age of marriage. Furthermore, government data shows the number of marriages fell by 200,000 in Japan from 2000 to last year. Japan's fertility rate was 1.36 last year. This is one of the world's lowest and far below the rate needed to maintain a population. In a country with a long history [...]

Views on AI’s impact on society are mixed across the world. Survey results from Pew Research Center show the public’s stance for 20 countries. This data on worldwide opinions of artificial intelligence and job automation highlights how education, gender, location, age and income all play a role. A median of about 53% say the development of artificial intelligence, or the use of computer systems designed to imitate human behaviors, has been a good thing for society, while 33% say it has been a bad thing. Views of AI are generally positive among the Asian publics surveyed: About two-thirds [...]

Unsurprisingly, our reliance on the internet has grown in the past year. Millions globally depend on it for their work, school, health, and basic services. Because of this, cyber-security and cyber-risk among citizens are a growing concern from a lack of education and literacy.  A small group of nations are moving in the right direction and can show others how best to proceed. This is according to a Cyber Risk Literacy and Education Index, which ranks 50 geographies. Summary of countries' index ranking and weighted scores for cyber literacy. [Source: Oliver Wyman] Switzerland, Singapore, [...]

What if decision-makers had access to more real-time data? For instance for the analysis of mobility or monetary transactions? This would enable an assessment of how the movement of people through a population can contribute to disease spread. Or the estimates of the effects of an outbreak or epidemic on economic outcomes. Some of this data is publicly available, while some is held by private institutions where it typically has a commercial value. We can mitigate the fallout of future health emergencies through better use of it and advanced analytics. The sensitive and sophisticated use of real-time, granular, [...]