The European Space Agency’s satellite has provided precise new data about outer space, Google employees sign a letter demanding to know why an AI researcher was fired, and Steve Wozniak is starting another company, 45 years after co-founding Apple with Steve Jobs.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, December 7, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
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The European Space Agency recently publicized new data from its Gaia observatory, which has been hovering in space since 2013 on a mission to chart a 3D map of the galaxy. The mission is meant to give astronomers clues to solve the universe’s biggest mysteries. The spacecraft’s Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) is only part of the third set of data. The rest will be compiled in 2022. These findings are monumental for understanding the origins and magnitude of the Milky Way.
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More than 1,000 Google employees have signed a petition over the exit of AI ethicist Timnit Gebru. The petition demands Google explain why a research paper coauthored by Gebru was rejected by management. Last Wednesday Gebru announced that she had been dismissed from Google over disputes regarding a research paper, as well as an email she sent to one of Google’s research groups which criticized the company’s treatment of minority workers.
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And finally, Steve Wozniak is starting a second company. Forty-five years after co-founding Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976, Wozniak is starting a business in the green tech and blockchain space called Efforce. The company’s cryptocurrency token, trading under the token named WOZX, was made public on Dec. 3 on HBTC, a marketplace for decentralized currencies, and will launch on Bithumb Global, another marketplace for decentralized currencies next week, according to a Medium post about the company.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening.