Proving Authenticity, In A Deepfake World Reality has a problem. As if truth and clarity weren’t already hard enough to discern, computer-driven manipulation of digital representations make it increasingly easy for people and other machines to be fooled. The most talked-about versions of this are “deepfakes,” usually comic or slanderous…

And We’d Better Get Used To It. We’ve had computers in our lives for seven decades, and it has taken almost that long to figure out what they want. They want to be everywhere; finding and annotating patterns, creating insights and efficiencies. …

[The following, with minor editorial changes, is from a monthly newsletter I publish at Google Cloud. Subscribe here.] There is a business attribute that almost every tech company seems to want. Few understand why they want it, though. It’s to be a “platform.” Something has happened to that concept, however, that says much about our sensor-rich world of smartphones, Web pages, interactive software and devices, capable of sensing and responding…

It’s no longer enough to make great technology: Customers, partners and regulators want to know why you made your choices. There is a little-noticed talent that’s critical for success in a tech-centric world, up there with being a great programmer, a master strategist, or even an innovative entrepreneur. It’s being…

Great industries aren’t born. They grow. [The following, with minor editorial changes, is from a monthly newsletter I publish. Subscribe here.] It’s time to rethink a popular cliche. When tech pundits say “data is the new oil,” they mean it’s core to the Information Age, the way oil was at…

What Does It Mean To Live When Things Are Made By The Billion? [The following appears, in a slightly different form, in a monthly newsletter I write in my job at Google Cloud. You can subscribe here.] A few years ago, the head of a chip company told me, “This…

[Note: This is a modified version of my monthly newsletter about cloud computing. Sign up here for more.] Sometimes the greatest truths make no damn sense. That’s not just a paradox, it’s also the definition of one. Welcome to this month’s issue of The Speed Read, special Halloween edition. In…

[ The following, slightly modified, first appeared as a monthly newsletter I write about the impacts of cloud computing. You can sign up to receive it at https://cloudplatformonline.com/Speed-Read-Newsletter-SignUp.html ] It’s common knowledge: The biggest problem in computer security is people. But what if we’re wrong? When it comes to hacking…

Humans do two things very well. What happens when we supercharge both? Most human achievements come from two things: spotting patterns and sharing information.In markets, people share the information of price movements to predict what they should build and sell next. …