From cashless payments to smartphone apps offering everything from taxis to take-out food – Africa’s digital revolution is gathering pace as average citizens take an active role in public discourse.

“You’re seeing a lot of the people changing the way they live their lives,” says Maria Sarungi, founder of the #ChangeTanzania platform. “And also creating for themselves wealth, jobs, opportunities. But also to engage politically on a very different level.”

Sarungi’s #ChangeTanzania platform began as a social media hashtag but ballooned into an online social movement with an app and website listing dozens of petitions and initiatives ranging from demands for security cameras at bus stops to a community beach clean.

“Before [it] used to be people sitting on the streets just talking a lot about politics,” says Sarungi. “But today they have become influencers. With the social media platforms, your voice can be amplified.”

In Uganda, the website Yogera, or ‘speak out,’ offers a platform for citizens to scrutinize government, complain about poor service or blow the whistle on corruption.

Kenya’s Mzalendo website styles itself as the ‘Eye on the Kenyan Parliament,’ profiling politicians, scrutinizing expenses and highlighting citizens’ rights.

But the new platforms for political engagement also risk a backlash.

“We are seeing governments trying to control as much as they can the virtual space,” says Sarungi.

The founder of whistleblowing website Jamii Forums last year fell afoul of Tanzania’s Cybercrimes Act and was charged with failing to disclose users’ data.

“We are not against the government, nor judges, nor the police forces,” says Maxence Melo, co-founder of Jamii Forums. “What we are against is the Cyber Crimes Act, which seems to oppress the people.”

Melo’s trial is due to take place next month.

Meanwhile, authorities in Cameroon cut off internet access for millions of people earlier this year following anti-government protests in English-speaking regions on the country. The French campaign group Internet without Borders warns that African governments are increasingly using internet blackouts to stifle political opposition.
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Ubiquitous drones and a faster Internet are coming sooner than you might think, and governments are staring into the unknown as they face the prospect of regulating the coming technological revolution in a way that fosters innovation, while at the same time protecting the often conflicting interests of consumers, entrepreneurs and the general public.

It’s Technology Week at the White House, and top industry executives huddled together Thursday with President Donald Trump to show off their wares and talk about what government’s role should be in regulating, and at the same time encouraging the pace of change. The discussion was all about “next generation” lightning-fast 5G wireless services and the exponential growth of drone-related technologies.

“This meeting comes at an important time because we’re on the precipice of moving to 5G and bringing about the Internet of Things,” said Mike Sievert, Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile, a leading cellphone service provider. “The position that the government takes is going to determine whether or not America continues to lead in technology.”

Sievert was joined by a Who’s Who of top executives from venture capitalists and firms such as Sprint, AT&T, General Electric, Honeywell, Verizon, and Microsoft. Also attending were entrepreneurs from drone industry leaders like AirMap, which produces a platform for drone mapping that is in use at most U.S. airports; and Precision Hawk, which analyzes data gathered by advanced drone technology and sensors for the energy and agriculture industries.

Trump told the group he is committed to keeping the government out of the way to allow the tech companies to grow and prosper.

“[There have been] too many years of excessive government regulation,” Trump told the drone executives. “We’ve had regulation that’s been so bad, so out of line, that it’s really hurt our country. On a daily basis, we’re getting rid of regulation.”

Enabling innovation

Trump’s message did not appear to go down well with the entrepreneurs, however. Precision Hawk CEO Michael Chasen explained to the president the need for government to take a lead role in establishing rules and standards for the drone industry.

“This is the one industry where we need a little bit more regulation,” Chasen told Trump. “Because the default [present state of affairs] is limiting what drone technology can do and we need the FAA and other regulatory bodies who have the power to regulate [to open] up those opportunities so we can stay competitive with other countries.”

Trump said his government wants to provide an environment where innovators can dream big.

“We’re on the verge of new technological revolutions that could improve virtually every aspect of our lives, create vast new wealth for American workers and families and open bold new frontiers in science, medicine and communications,” said the president.

Drone industry experts say sales growth has been phenomenal.

“In the past eight months, nearly 850,000 drones were registered by the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration],” said Brett Velicovich, president of a Washington area drone firm and author of the new book Drone Warrior. “That compares to only 350,000 airplanes sold over the past 100 years.”

Drone concerns

Velicovich said his greatest worry is that governments such as the United States don’t seem to fully appreciate the potential security threat posed by the new generation of cheap, powerful drones in the hands of terrorists.

“Groups like ISIS see how cheap this technology is and how capable it is and how far they can fly away from the remote and the type of payloads you can put on it and so the security implications come from these people and organizations that would try and do us harm,” he told VOA. “They see how readily available the technology is, how cheap it is, and how far it’s come just in the last few months.”

The United States has long been a leader in the use of military drones, and a multi-billion-dollar drone sale is reported to be up for discussion early next week when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays a visit to the White House.

Reuters reports that India is pushing to buy a naval variant of the Predator drone, which manufacturer General Atomics says can be used for wide-area, long-endurance maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. It can stay in the air for up to 27 hours and can fly at a maximum altitude of 15,000 meters.
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A rapidly-growing robotics industry in India is helping usher in automation technology in companies. But at a time when the country is struggling to create jobs for millions of young people, the World Bank has warned that automation could put 70 percent of India’s jobs at risk. Anjana Pasricha has this report from New Delhi.
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Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had won a $104 million U.S. Air Force contract to develop, produce and field a threat simulator to train combat aircrews to recognize and deal with rapidly evolving threats, such as surface-to-air missiles.

Tim Cahill, vice president of air and missile defense systems for Lockheed, said a number of other countries had already expressed interest in the  Advanced Radar Threat System Variant 2, and talks could begin soon on possible sales.

Cahill did not estimate the volume of possible future sales, but potential buyers included all countries that plan to operate the stealthy F-35 fighter jet in coming years.

“It’s a cool little program,” he said. “This is just the first tranche, but it has the potential to be a really big program for us.”

“As the capabilities on the ground from potential threat nations get stronger and better and more capable … it’s very important that the pilots need to train against a system that is actually a high-fidelity simulation of what they would fly against in combat,” he said.

The contract calls for development and delivery of a production-ready system and options to produce up to 20 more. Cahill said the truck-mounted system would emit signals that simulated those of current and evolving advanced surface-to-air threats.
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The Red Cross launched a smartphone app Tuesday to help refugees and migrants arriving in Italy access information and services, including medical, psychological and legal support.

The digital platform called “Virtual Volunteer” was unveiled on World Refugee Day as new data showed the number of refugees globally reached a record 22.5 million in 2016.

“People moving are often caught in a fog of poor information,” said Jagan Chapagain, head of programs and operations at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “They don’t always know what services are available to them.

“This is a tool that will help give them a clearer view so that they can make informed decisions,” he said in a statement.

Italy is on the front line in the European migrant crisis, which has seen hundreds of thousands of people arrive in the continent by land and sea after fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Nearly 70,000 have arrived in Italy so far this year, mostly migrants from West Africa and Bangladesh, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Goods, services, tips

Virtual Volunteer uses geolocation to show users on a map where to access shelters, food banks, canteens, showers, clothes distribution points, maternal health centers, free legal assistance, dentists and language schools.

Refugees and migrants can also find advice on how to protect themselves from traffickers and can access information to help them locate family members if they have become separated.

The app — developed by the IFRC and tech giant IBM — has already been rolled out in Greece and Sweden, where it has been used by 30,000 people. “Information saves lives. Ensuring that people can access unbiased, factual information has a big impact,” Italian Red Cross President Francesco Rocca said in a statement.

Virtual Volunteer, also accessible as a website, offers information in multiple languages depending on what is most needed in each country. Languages in Italy include French, Arabic and Tigrinya, reflecting the high number of Eritrean arrivals, while those in Greece include Arabic, Farsi and Dari.

The IFRC plans to roll out the service in other countries affected by migration, including the Philippines and countries in West Africa.
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Countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be a wellspring of opportunity for the United States because of growth in the region’s digital economy and its young population, researchers say.

Those combined forces will “create a much more dynamic [economy] … over the coming decades,” said Satu Limaye, head of the Washington office of the East-West Center, which has conducted research on major trends in Southeast Asia. “You have a young population, very adept at technology, adaptive to innovation, so … they are going to be moving up the supply chain in terms of their comfort with technology-based innovation.”

ASEAN is the world’s fastest-growing internet market, with nearly 4 million Southeast Asians coming online every month, according to data from ASEAN Matters for America/America Matters for ASEAN, which was released in May.

The report projected that by 2020, up to 480 million Southeast Asians would be online, compared with 260 million in 2016, driven largely by the adoption of smartphones. This young and tech-savvy population, with a growing middle-class base, is projected to help the digital economy grow by 500 percent to around $200 billion by 2025.

The report marking ASEAN’s 50th anniversary was published in collaboration with the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) and the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Global players

Alexander Feldman, chairman and chief executive of USABC, said ASEAN’s digital dynamism means Southeast Asia-based companies will become global players, and the United States should play a key role in ensuring that this digital growth will help narrow economic inequality.

“Technology is a great leveler and it is something that ASEAN has been focusing on,” Feldman told VOA Khmer. “How do we ensure the prosperity is shared throughout the economy and that you have equal growth in ASEAN? I think the digital economy is a key, and American companies are the key to the digital economy.”

Feldman, who attended the World Economic Forum on ASEAN, a three-day event in Phnom Penh that focused on youth and digital technology, said the host country, Cambodia, sees big potential in its nascent technology sector in addition to its traditional agriculture sector, where growth appears more promising because of technology.

In both sectors, Feldman sees room for U.S. companies working in logistics, a key component of e-commerce, which is just getting started in Cambodia and its neighbors.

ASEAN ambassadors who attended the launch of the report in Washington in May agreed that the digital economy presents new opportunities for boosting their economies, while strengthening their relationships with the U.S. They agreed that U.S. digital engagement in helping less-developed ASEAN countries like Cambodia will help kick-start their digital economies.

Accent on technology

Chum Bunrong, Cambodia’s ambassador to the U.S., said his government has now made technology a priority for development. He said the U.S. has been particularly helpful in investment and tech-related education through exchange programs.

Singapore’s ambassador to the U.S., Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, said many young Southeast Asians look to the U.S. as they hope to launch their startups in California’s Silicon Valley. Singapore is home to the regional offices of Facebook and Google and has taken advantage of the U.S. tech sector. For example, two years ago, Singapore expanded its famed “Block71” tech ecosystem to Silicon Valley.

Increased connectivity among ASEAN economies and emerging country-based technologies like fintech (financial technology) will only increase the region’s two-way digital trade with the U.S., according to Mirpuri.

The biggest challenges ASEAN nations now face are protecting data and digital transactions to increase consumer confidence in cybersecurity, said Feldman, who is working with U.S. companies to help build a common data security framework for ASEAN’s diverse economies.

“We hope that there will be harmonization of regulations, especially around data in the ASEAN Economic Community,” he said, “and we hope that that harmonization will allow for free flow of data.”

U.S. exit from pact

Feldman added that the recent withdrawal of the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would affect “digital trade” with ASEAN.

“We fully understand that in America, some will benefit more than others and some that will not benefit at all” from the TPP, he said. “I think it’s silly for America to solely focus on industries of the past. We definitely need to focus on the industries we are strong on currently and in the future. And technology and the digital economy are certainly areas where America is strong.”

This report originated on VOA Khmer.
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A man who died last year when his semi-autonomous Tesla Model S collided with a truck kept his hands off the steering wheel and apparently did not respond to automated warnings from the car to take the wheel, according to over 500 documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Monday.

The report found that over the “vast majority” of the 37-minute trip Joshua Brown, a former Navy SEAL, was not holding the steering wheel. He only did so for 25 seconds, the NTSB said. The report found that Brown also appeared to ignore numerous warnings to take hold of the wheel prior to the May 2016 crash near Williston, Fla.

The findings appear to take the blame away from Tesla, which has yet to comment on the NTSB report. The company did say last year that autopilot mode “does not allow the driver to abdicate responsibility.”

The report is also good news for the nascent driverless car industry, which hopes to show that computers can drive safely for extended periods of time with limited human intervention.

The NTSB findings echo a report on the incident released last month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. At that time, Tesla founder Elon Musk called the report “very positive.”

According to the Reuters news agency, Brown family attorney Jack Landskroner said the NTSB documents disprove prior media reports that Brown was watching a movie when the crash occurred. He also said the family has yet to take legal action against Tesla, but would continue to review the NTSB documents.

In the wake of the incident, Tesla upgraded its autopilot mode making it harder to operate in hands-off position. The upgrade also prevents drivers from using autopilot mode if they fail to respond to computerized prompts from the system.
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A slew of high tech heavyweights, some of whom have criticized President Donald Trump’s policies, huddled at the White House Monday as the administration kicked off its “technology week.”

The chief executive officers of companies ranging from Amazon (the world’s largest internet company by revenue) to cloud computing giant VMware, held meetings with White House and other Trump administration officials to generate ideas to attempt to transform and modernize government services.

The 18 corporate leaders cumulatively represent more than $3.5 trillion in market value, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.

“Today we’ve assembled a very impressive group of leaders from the private sector and are putting them to work here today to work on some of the country’s biggest challenges that will make a very meaningful difference to a lot of its citizens,” said White House senior advisor Jared Kushner.

​Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said the goal is to “work to modernize the government’s technology infrastructure.” He added that he was warned when he took the job that the bureaucracy would resist change but “so far, I have found exactly the opposite.”

Kushner and others are lamenting legacy tech issues with the sprawling federal government, which maintains more than 6,000 data centers. Some of the system stretches back more than a half century.

The Department of Defense is still using floppy disks in some of its computer systems, Kushner noted.

“Our goal here is simple. We are here to improve the day to day lives of the average citizen,” he said. “That’s a core promise and we are keeping it.”

Specifically, there are hopes to save $1 trillion over a decade by cutting government IT costs, according to administration officials.

Monday’s White House event includes working sessions focused on citizen services, cloud computing, analytics, cybersecurity, big data, purchasing and contract reform, talent recruitment and retraining, government and private sector partnerships, H1-B visas and future trends, according to a White House official.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to attend some of the meetings.

Other prominent administration participants include General H.R. McMaster, who is the national security advisor; Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert; Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget; and three cabinet secretaries: Steven Mnuchin of Treasury, John Kelly of Homeland Security and Wilbur Ross of Commerce.

Participating Silicon Valley chief executives, besides Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Pat Gelsinger of VMware, include Eric Schmidt of Alphabet (parent company of Google), Tim Cook of Apple, Brian Krzanich of Intel, Steven Mollenkopf of Qualcomm, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe and Ginni Rometty of IBM.

Several of those attending also were at a similar meeting Trump convened last December before his presidential inauguration.

Notably absent from this second meeting is Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, who recently quit as an outside economic advisor to the president in protest of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Trump in May created an American Technology Council to modernize the federal government, two months after he signed an order to overhaul government and selected Kushner to lead a White House Office of American Innovation.
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The soaring cathedrals of Europe seem to defy gravity. But 3-D architects are taking a page from the ancient masters to form their new creations. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Apple has hired two longtime Sony Pictures Television executives to expand the iPhone maker’s push into original television programming, plunging deeper into a field crowded by Hollywood studios and online streaming services.

Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, responsible for hit shows such as “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul” and “The Crown,” will join Apple in newly created positions to oversee all aspects of video programming, the technology company said Friday.

“Jamie and Zack are two of the most talented TV executives in the world and have been instrumental in making this the golden age of television,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services.

“There is much more to come,” Cue said of Apple’s video effort.

No word on strategy

The new hires demonstrate a serious commitment by another deep-pocketed technology company to produce quality television shows. Erlicht and Van Amburg have served as senior Sony television executives since 2005.

But Apple did not elaborate on its strategy, leaving investors guessing how many shows it plans to distribute, how much it will spend and where the programming will be available.

The company is playing in an increasingly competitive field.

Amazon.com and Netflix have invested billions of dollars in award-winning comedies and dramas featuring A-list Hollywood stars. And social media company Facebook has signed deals with millennial-focused news and entertainment creators, including Vox and BuzzFeed, to make shows for its upcoming video service.

Apple began its move last week with reality program “Planet of the Apps,” an unscripted show about developers competing for venture capital funding. The series is available only to subscribers to Apple Music, a $10-a-month streaming service.

Apple has one huge advantage compared with other companies: 1 billion iPhones, iPads and other devices that run Apple’s mobile operating system and offer a broad distribution platform.

The company has widely promoted “Planet of the Apps” across iTunes, the App Store, Apple’s website and elsewhere.

Pressure on traditional outlets

As tech companies push further into the content business, pressure mounts on traditional media outlets that do not have the same amount of data on viewers or the ability for content to be a loss leader, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG.

“These companies do not need to make money off video because they can make money other ways,” Greenfield said. “And they are going to have tons of data on their viewers.”

It is more cost-effective for Apple to pay for original content and secure licensing deals on its own than to buy a content company, said Moody’s analyst Gerald Granovsky.

“From a credit perspective, we’d much rather see Apple overpay to deliver original content than pay $50 billion to buy Netflix and basically compete for the same content,” he said. “They’ll definitely get a better bang for their buck by focusing on their Apple TV product.”

No Disney deal

Greenfield said news of Apple’s hires should put to rest rumors that Apple might acquire another content company, Walt Disney.

“It’s pretty clear now that Apple isn’t buying Disney,” he said.

Disney shares were down 0.5 percent at $105.40 on Friday afternoon. Apple shares were down 0.9 percent at $143.01.

For Sony, the departures come as the Japanese conglomerate revamps its movie and television studio under new Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra. In a memo to staff, Vinciquerra suggested Apple could be a buyer of Sony programming.

“While we are sad to see them go, we are excited by the opportunity to work with them as partners in the future,” he said.
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The electronic bleeps and squawks of “Tetris,” “Donkey Kong” and other generation-shaping games that you may never have thought of as musical are increasingly likely to be playing at a philharmonic concert hall near you.

From the “ping … ping”  of Atari’s 1972 ground-breaking paddle game “Pong,” the sounds, infectious ditties and, with time, fully-formed orchestral scores that are an essential part of the sensory thrill for gamers have formed a musical universe. With its own culture, sub-cultures and fans, game music now thrives alone, free from the consoles from which it came.

When audiences pack the Philharmonie de Paris’ concert halls this weekend to soak in the sounds of a chamber orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra performing game music and an homage to one of the industry’s stars, “Final Fantasy” Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, they will have no buttons to play with, no characters to control.

Music triggers nostalgia

They’re coming for the music and the nostalgia it triggers: of fun-filled hours spent on sofas with a Game Boy, Sonic the Hedgehog and the evergreen Mario.

“When you’re playing a game you are living that music every day and it just gets into your DNA,” says Eimear Noone, the conductor of Friday’s opening two-hour show of 17 titles, including “Zelda,” “Tomb Raider,” “Medal of Honor” and other favorites from the 1980s onward.

“When people hear those themes they are right back there. And people get really emotional about it. I mean REALLY emotional. It’s incredible.”

Dating the birth of game music depends on how one defines music. Game music scholars — yes, they exist — point to key milestones on the path to the surround-sound extravaganzas of games today.

Game music remix

The heartbeat-like bass thump of Taito’s “Space Invaders” in 1978, which got ever faster as the aliens descended, caused sweaty palms and was habit-forming.

Namco’s “Pac-Man,” two years later, whetted appetites with an opening musical chirp. For fun, check out the 2013 remix by Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, and game music composer Tommy Tallarico. Their take on the tune speaks to the sub-culture of remixing game music, with thousands of redos uploaded by fans to sites like ocremix.org — dedicated, it says, “to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form.”

Based on the Russian folk song “Korobeiniki,” the music of the 1984 game “Tetris” has similarly undergone umpteen remixes — including “Tetris Meets Metal,” with more than 2.2 million views on YouTube.

Fame for Kondo

By 1985, the can’t-not-tap-along-to-this theme of “Super Mario Bros.,” the classic adventure of plumber Mario and his brother Luigi, was bringing fame for composer Koji Kondo, also known for his work on “Legend of Zelda.” Both are on the bill for the “Retrogaming” concert in Paris. Kondo was the first person Nintendo hired specifically to compose music for its games, according to the 2013 book, “Music and Game.”

Noone, known herself for musical work on “World of Warcraft,” “Overwatch” and other games, says the technological limitations of early consoles — tiny memories, rudimentary chips, crude sounds — forced composers “to distill their melodies down to the absolute kernels of what melodic content can be, because they had to program it note by note.”

But simple often also means memorable. Think “da-da-da-duh” — the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

‘It speaks to people’

“That is part of the reason why this music has a place in people’s hearts and has survived,” Noone says of game tunes. “It speaks to people.”

She says game music is where movie music was 15 years ago: well on its way to being completely accepted.

“I predict that in 15 years’ time it will be a main staple of the orchestral season,” she says. “This is crazy to think of: Today, more young people are listening to orchestral music through the medium of their video game consoles than have ever listened to orchestral music.”

She still sometimes encounters snobbism from orchestras: “They saw ‘Pong’ once and that’s video game music to them, you know?”

‘The Rolling Stones’

But “halfway through the first rehearsal, their attitude has changed,” she adds. “And then when they walk out on stage and the audience treats them like they’re The Rolling Stones.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first game-music concert: The Tokyo Strings Ensemble performed “Dragon Quest” at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in August 1987. Now there are six touring shows of symphonic game music, Noone says.  

“This is just the best way, the most fun way to introduce kids to the instruments of the orchestra,” she adds. “It may be the first time ever they are that close to a cellist, and that’s really exciting for me.”
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Facebook has revealed it is using artificial intelligence in its ongoing fight to prevent terrorist propaganda from being disseminated on its platform.

“We want to find terrorist content immediately, before people in our community have seen it,” read the message posted Thursday. “Already, the majority of accounts we remove for terrorism we find ourselves. But we know we can do better at using technology — and specifically artificial intelligence — to stop the spread of terrorist content on Facebook.”

The company has been under increasing pressure from governments around the world to do a better job of removing posts made by terrorists

Some of the roles AI plays involve “image matching” to see if an uploaded image matches something previously removed because of its terrorist content.

“Language understanding,” the company says, will allow it to “understand text that might be advocating for terrorism.”

AI, Facebook says, is also useful for identifying and removing “terrorist clusters.”

“We know from studies of terrorists that they tend to radicalize and operate in clusters,” according to the blog post. “This offline trend is reflected online as well. So when we identify pages, groups, posts or profiles as supporting terrorism, we also use algorithms to “fan out” to try to identify related material that may also support terrorism.”

Facebook said AI has helped identify and remove fake accounts made by “repeat offenders.” It says it has already reduced the time fake accounts are active.

However, the company does not rely completely on AI.

“AI can’t catch everything,” it said. “Figuring out what supports terrorism and what does not isn’t always straightforward, and algorithms are not yet as good as people when it comes to understanding this kind of context.

“A photo of an armed man waving an ISIS flag might be propaganda or recruiting material, but could be an image in a news story. Some of the most effective criticisms of brutal groups like ISIS utilize the group’s own propaganda against it. To understand more nuanced cases, we need human expertise.”
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