(WTTW News)

ShotSpotter alerts law enforcement to potential gunfire with the goal of reducing gun violence in Chicago. Critics say it's ineffective and contributes to overpolicing in Black and Latino communities.

This July 9, 2019, file photo shows a sign outside of the Twitter office building in San Francisco. (AP Photo / Jeff Chiu, File)

Twitter banned all political advertising in 2019, reacting to growing concern about misinformation spreading on social media. The latest move appears to represent a break from that policy, which had banned ads by candidates, political parties, or elected or appointed government officials.

Delivery robots. (Courtesy of Starship)
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Chicago's City Council approved a pilot program that will allow restaurants and grocery stores to make deliveries via "personal delivery devices (PDDs)," aka, robots.

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a small and flexible implant, pictured here, that can relieve pain without drugs. (Credit: Northwestern University)
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A new study suggests ant colonies work like a collective brain to make decisions. How racial discrimination could negatively impact brain structure. A surgical implant that could provide pain relief without drugs. And how a quirk of evolution gave humans our voice.

Activists called on Chicago to drop its contract with ShotSpotter during a protest on Aug. 19, 2021. (WTTW News)

“ShotSpotter inflates gunfire statistics, thereby providing false justification for oppressive police tactics in neighborhoods under its surveillance — all of which are already overpoliced,” attorneys wrote in a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago.

In this April 17, 2019, file photo online customer reviews for a product are displayed on a computer in New York. (AP Photo / Jenny Kane, File)
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The retailer’s announcement comes as another side of the company’s operations is facing more scrutiny. On Tuesday, federal labor officials confirmed to the AP the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened inspections at Amazon facilities in New York, Illinois, and Florida. 

(WTTW News)

Five local Latino-led startups received some welcome news this week. Each of their businesses was awarded $100,000 from Google’s Startups Latino Founders Fund. 

Hoan Ton-That, CEO of Clearview AI, demonstrates the company's facial recognition software using a photo of himself in New York on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022.  (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)
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The company in a legal filing Monday agreed to permanently stop selling access to its face database to private businesses or individuals around the U.S., putting a limit on what it can do with its ever-growing trove of billions of images pulled from social media and elsewhere on the internet.

The Twitter application is seen on a digital device, April 25, 2022, in San Diego. (AP Photo / Gregory Bull, File)
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While Musk hasn’t offered specifics about how he would run the platform, his musings are prompting celebrations from some of those muzzled by Twitter, even as they alarm internet safety experts who predict a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation about topics like vaccines and elections.

A Joint Cybersecurity Advisory published by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency about destructive malware that is targeting organizations in Ukraine is photographed Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (AP Photo / Jon Elswick)

So far, Ukraine’s internet mostly works, its president still able to rally global support via a smartphone, and its power plants and other critical infrastructure still able to function. The kind of devastating cyberattacks thought likely to accompany a large-scale Russian military invasion haven’t happened.

(WTTW News)

As part of our La Última Palabra series, Lou Sandoval, CEO of Supply Hive, says it’s time for Latinos to look to the tech industry for entrepreneurial inspiration.

(Pixabay)

The company faces challenges on multiple fronts, but it was a dismal earnings report Wednesday that triggered the sudden collapse in its share price.

(Photo by Daniel Bosse on Unsplash)

Marginalized people often suffer the most harm from unintended consequences of new technologies, according to researcher Breigha Adeyemo who shares ways to make them more inclusive. 

Amazon drivers wait next to a Crunch Time station as their logistics systems is offline at the Amazon Delivery Station in Rosemead, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.  (AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes)

A major outage in Amazon’s cloud computing network Tuesday severely disrupted services at a wide range of U.S. companies for hours, raising questions about the vulnerability of the internet and its concentration in the hands of a few firms.

(WTTW News)

Amazon’s cloud computing technology experienced major technical difficulties Tuesday, and brought half the world to a halt — or at least it felt that way to clients and consumers reliant on applications or services such as Alexa, Amazon Prime Video, Ring and Canvas.

Volunteers Joe O'Connor, left, and Eric Leuck prepare boxes that will be filled with food at the Northern Illinois Food Bank and delivered by DoorDash drivers for area residents who are homebound Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, in Park City, Ill. (AP Photo / Charles Rex Arbogast)
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In 2021, U.S. Food Banks are serving about 55% more people than they did in 2020 before the pandemic, according to Feeding America. The increased demand is straining many food banks, a problem that is worsening as supply chain disruptions, diminished inventories and labor shortages magnify food costs.