Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
The Hidden Forces Behind Toutiao: China’s Content King yCombinator
I had never heard of Toutiao before. It’s the largest newsfeed in China read by over 120M people every day. This is a fascinating and technical read; Toutiao managed to build a massive audience without a social graph. Oh yeah and they built machine learning algorithms that create original content.
Can Tech Startups Do Journalism? The Ringer
Should tech startups build their own content websites? That is what Casper attempted, they sell mattresses online. It’s definitely a fine line between journalism and sponsored content. This article explores the failures and successes of these digital brands and the inherent ethical conflict it raises.
A Letter to Jamie Dimon, and anyone else still struggling to understand cryptocurrencies Chain
This is one of the best articles I’ve read that explains in a simple manner what cryptocurrencies are. It provides a simple and easy to understand summary of where cryptocurrencies stand today and all the hype around them. I recently started dabbling with Bitcoin and Ethereum and it’s a fascinating use of cryptographic technology.
How to build a self-conscious machine Wired
In our office, we’re often joking about the plethora of announcements around artificial intelligence. Just this week, a lot of noise was made about Google DeepMind’s announcement around AlphaGo. There was fundamentally nothing new in this press release. This article in Wired explores what needs to happen in order for a real breakthrough to happen, specifically around consciousness.
Give me my reputation back Gavin Kelly
If you watch Black Mirror, you might remember the episode where people judge each other on a 5 star rating. Gavin Kelly brilliantly argues that gig economy workers should be able to take their rating & reviews with them. Uber argues that their drivers are independent and as such their drivers should be able to leave with their data.
