Hitting the Books: Meet Richard Arkwright, the world's first tech titan

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when Lancashire's own Richard Arkwright wrote it. Arkwright is credited with developing a means of forming cotton fully into thread — technically he didn't actually invent or design the machine, but developed the overarching system in which it could be run at scale — and spinning that success into financial fortune. Never mind the fact that his 24-hour production lines were operated by boys as young as seven pulling 13-hour shifts.InBlood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech — one of the best books I've read this year — LA Times tech reporter Brian Merchant lays bare the inhumane cost of capitalism wrought by the industrial revolution and celebrates the workers who stood against those first tides of automation: the Luddites.Hachette Book GroupExcerpted from Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant. Published by Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2023 by Brian Merchant. All rights reserved.The first tech titans were not building global information networks or commercial space rockets. They were making yarn and cloth. A lot of yarn, and a lot of cloth.Like our modern-day titans, they started out as entrepreneurs. But until the nineteenth century, entrepreneurship was not a... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-09-11 20:50:45 UTC ]

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Frankfurt Notes: Italy Sending 249 Publishers; AI Survey at the Buchmesse

With an eye to 2023, when Italy will be Frankfurt's Guest of Honor, a new, expanded exhibition space is being inaugurated. And the book fair will be surveying publishers on issues around artificial intelligence. The post Frankfurt Notes: Italy Sending 249 Publishers; AI Survey at the Buchmesse... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-10-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookseller's EdTech Conference keynotes revealed

Two experts in education, artificial intelligence and new technologies will give keynote speeches for The Bookseller's EdTech Conference, held as part of FutureBook Live 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pearson hires head of artificial intelligence

Pearson is concentrating efforts in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) and has hired a former Intel executive, Milena Marinova, to be its senior vice president for AI products and solutions. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Announces M Will No Longer Serve Your Every Whim

Say goodbye to M, Facebook's experimental virtual assistant. The company is shutting down M's services without even letting it leave the testing phase, where it had operated since 2015. The service once seemed to hold the promise of acting as a digital concierge, helping people book hotels,... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair: ARTS+ Equals Tech and Innovation

In the ARTS+ area of the Frankfurt Book Fair, artificial intelligence and virtual reality collided with arts and culture to explore new ways of doing business and providing engaging experiences. The post Frankfurt Book Fair: ARTS+ Equals Tech and Innovation appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Trains AI to Identify False News Spam Sites

Facebook is taking another step to penalize the lowest quality websites by lowering their visibility on the social network.Facebook is using artificial intelligence to identify when a link leads to a website with the worst ad experiences, like sponsored content spam and other negative cues, and... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Adds Book Recommendation Bots to Facebook Messenger

The publisher is using artificial intelligence to turn Facebook Messenger into an interactive book recommendation engine. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AI is already making inroads into journalism but could it win a Pulitzer?

From football reports to clickbait, programs are changing the way the news is createdLook closely at what many journalists write about artificial intelligence – from AlphaGo’s triumph at the ancient Chinese board game Go to Microsoft’s accidentally racist Twitter bot – and you might detect some... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Japan, Novel by Artificial Intelligence and Humans Vies for Literary Prize

A 'co-authored' novel made a respectable showing in a Japanese award designed for Artificial Intelligence and human collaboration. The post In Japan, Novel by Artificial Intelligence and Humans Vies for Literary Prize appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On Automating Metadata Extraction for Academic Publishing

SourceHOV argues that artificial intelligence can obviate the need for publishers to manually create metadata tags and significantly streamline workflows. The post On Automating Metadata Extraction for Academic Publishing appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What Hot Titles U.S. Agents will Be Taking to the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair

Among the titles expected to draw lots of interest are Anna Quindlen’s new novel, two projects by Karl Ove Knausgaard, an examination of artificial intelligence, and a look back by Cindy Crawford. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is now working on its own digital assistant called M

Sounding like a character from a James Bond movie, M is Facebook's personal digital assistant. Ready to compete with the likes of Cortana, M will live inside Facebook Messenger and take artificial intelligence a step further. Rather than just helping you to find information or create calendar... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2015-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elon Musk is afraid Larry Page might end up destroying the world

When SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk recently said that with artificial intelligence we’re "summoning the demon", he wasn’t joking. He was genuinely concerned about artificial intelligence turning against humanity, and according to a new book by Ashlee Vance, he still is. In his new book,... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2015-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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