Throughout the history of digital technology, data was largely the language of vigorously trained computer scientists and engineers. Only in the past decade, with the influx of highly-targeted social advertising, has data really entered the public consciousness. Privacy legislation like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), enacted in 2018, and next year's California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), have helped data become part of the common tongue. This legislation means more control for consumers and accountability for enterprises, ultimately laying the groundwork for data's next phase: democratization. When I first heard this idea of data democratization a few years ago, it was said that the democratization of data would create a technological utopia. Of course, utopia is elusive, and societal applications of technologies -- however well-intentioned -- do not always pan out as planned.

Automation is not likely to eliminate millions of jobs any time soon--but the U.S. still needs vastly improved policies if Americans are to build better careers and share prosperity as technological changes occur, according to a new MIT report about the workplace. The report, which represents the initial findings of MIT's Task Force on the Work of the Future, punctures some conventional wisdom and builds a nuanced picture of the evolution of technology and jobs, the subject of much fraught public discussion. The likelihood of robots, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) wiping out huge sectors of the workforce in the near future is exaggerated, the task force concludes--but there is reason for concern about the impact of new technology on the labor market. In recent decades, technology has contributed to the polarization of employment, disproportionately helping high-skilled professionals while reducing opportunities for many other workers, and new technologies could exacerbate this trend. Moreover, the report emphasizes, at a time of historic income inequality, a critical challenge is not necessarily a lack of jobs, but the low quality of many jobs and the resulting lack of viable careers for many people, particularly workers without college degrees.

The Partnership on AI, a nonprofit group researching the uses of artificial intelligence, is calling for a softening of immigration laws and visa rules to make it easier for AI experts to travel around the world. The PAI's new policy paper, released today, addresses what it says is the impact of current restrictive visa laws and immigration rules on AI and machine learning technology development. It says these policies impede the ability of many students, researchers and industry practitioners to travel freely and, as a result, hurt the progress of AI research. "It is tremendously important to have international scholars be able to meet in person to discuss issues in technology ethics, especially in AI, which is transforming the world so rapidly," said Brian Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. "Visas have supported these meetings."

Leveraging AI and IoT for environmental sustainability can help maximize our current efforts for environmental protection. According to a 2018 report by Intel, 74% of 200 business decision-makers in environmental sustainability agreed that AI would help solve environmental problems. Millions of electronic devices are discarded without proper disposal. Billions of dollars are wasted every year for proper disposal or recycling of used parts of discarded devices. To mitigate the issue of improper disposal of redundant electronic devices, companies like Apple use recycled materials or materials which have a low harmful impact on the environment.

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"Legal confidentiality is a shield for citizens." These are the words of Shami Chakrabarti, the one-time director of the UK-based human rights group Liberty, who was speaking in 2018. Well, it seems that this shield has just been broken, because researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have published a study in which they were able to identify the participants in confidential legal cases, even though such participants had been anonymized. By harnessing these technologies in tandem, the study's authors could mine over 120,000 public legal records and then use an algorithm to identify connections between them. Described as "linkage," this process enabled the researchers to identify anonymous parties mentioned in public records of Swiss Supreme Court decisions, simply by linking anonymous records to those where various pieces of information was given.

We learn to lie as children, between the ages of two and five. By adulthood, we are prolific. We lie to our employers, our partners and, most of all, one study has found, to our mothers. The average person hears up to 200 lies a day, according to research by Jerry Jellison, a psychologist at the University of Southern California. The majority of the lies we tell are "white", the inconsequential niceties – "I love your dress!" – that grease the wheels of human interaction. But most people tell one or two "big" lies a day, says Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. We lie to promote ourselves, protect ourselves and to hurt or avoid hurting others. The mystery is how we keep getting away with it. Our bodies expose us in every way. We stutter, stall and make Freudian slips. "No mortal can keep a secret," wrote the psychoanalyst in 1905.

Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed Silicon Valley-casual in jeans and flanked by a PR rep rather than cloaked acolytes, the engineer known for self-driving cars--and triggering a notorious lawsuit--could be unveiling his latest startup instead of laying the foundations for a new religion. But he is doing just that. Artificial intelligence has already inspired billion-dollar companies, far-reaching research programs, and scenarios of both transcendence and doom. Now Levandowski is creating its first church.

A newly established religion called Way of the Future will worship artificial intelligence, focusing on "the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence" that followers believe will eventually surpass human control over Earth. The first AI-based church was founded by Anthony Levandowski, the Silicon Valley multimillionaire who championed the robotics team for Uber's self-driving program and Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Google. Way of the Future "is about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people'machines,'" the religion's official website reads. "Given that technology will'relatively soon' be able to surpass human abilities, we want to help educate people about this exciting future and prepare a smooth transition." Levandowski filed documents to establish the religion back in May, making himself the "Dean" of the church and the CEO of a related nonprofit that would run it.