Another strong digest at the bottom today. And Lordy, there’s another chart. 🙃
Straight up: Big Tech only makes its money when it dehumanizes people.
Medicine — including what Silicon Valley is trying to reposition as “healthcare” — is the exact opposite of that.
We’ve talked about this before. But now, the life-threatening examples are mounting:
Big Tech promises that patch worn on your diabetic kid’s arm eliminates the need to manually test his blood sugar. Then, for an entire weekend, the life-saving device alerts that rely on technology from Microsoft and Google stopped. Just stopped. And no one notified parents. The startup said the problem was “a complete surprise”. (Also: Despite harrowing parent stories, all a leading healthcare tech media outlet could muster was “a cautionary tale”?)
Big Tech promises their software makes cars autonomous — their word. Then an Uber vehicle in “autonomous mode” kills a woman while she is walking across a street. The software was never programmed to detect humans outside of crosswalks. (And Big Tech’s response: “Well, people are going to have to die in the name of progress.” Let’s be clear: This woman was not Chuck Yeager choosing a risky life as a test pilot — this woman was crossing the street. Homicide is a healthcare issue.)
Other deadly issues are looming:
Science Magazine asks a fundamental question: Once a medical AI/ML technology is deemed safe and effective, should the regulator limit its authorization to only the version of the algorithm that was submitted and restrict future, so-called “adaptive” versions of the algorithm that come next? (Researchers say yes — and have introduced the concept of “algorithm lockdown.”)
Big Tech continues to buy, scrape and steal your highly personal healthcare details at every turn.
Pro tip: Don’t trust your life to Big Tech.
TODAY IN…
Deep Tech:
Smart, comprehensive survey of CEO tech priorities
Five metro areas saw 90% of all U.S. high-tech job growth between 2005 to 2017
Media & Telecom:
Is there a Google plea-bargain playing out? First the famously controlling co-founders vacate day-to-day operations. Now the next-most controversial executive is removed from the high-profile, highly strategic subsidiary he co-founded.
Latency > Speed for the next five years: The cloud is coming to the edge because latency matters
Healthcare Tech:
A new study ranks 50 countries by how they’re collecting biometric data and what they’re doing with it. The U.S. is the fourth worst in the world.
A massive FDA coverup of surgical device failures has been broken, sparking lawsuits and new research. The hidden data — 5.6 million medical-device reports — represents more than 40% of all device reports filed with the agency. See also: More than 120,000 medical-device failure records from 46 countries are now available publicly for the first time. It’s the world’s largest database of medical device recalls, safety alerts and field-safety notices.
Finance:
HSBC’s plan to move $20B in assets to blockchain could be a watershed moment
Assets held by private equity firms swelled 83% in the last decade … Also this: Private equity is coming for hospitals. And this: Private equity is now suing patients who can't pay unauthorized, jacked-up emergency room bills. And this: Private equity's other stake in surprise medical bills.
Public Policy:
Beijing orders state offices to replace foreign PCs and software. It’s the latest escalation in the Tech Cold War. See also: The battle is joined.
A broad coalition of consumer groups — including doctors — is calling on the FTC to subpoena tech companies that target kids
The anti-trust voices not named Elizabeth Warren are growing louder. U.S. House of Representatives lawmaker David Cicilline is profiled here. And the Financial Times offers How to take back control from the Big Tech barons
One More Thing…
This 4-year analysis of tech-company multiples contains multitudes. Start with this chart…