The recent arrest of Telegram founder and chief executive officer Pavel Durov at Le Bourget airport near Paris has sent shockwaves through the tech world. Elon Musk called on France to “free Pavel” to avert a threat to democracy; Paul Graham, the co-founder of leading Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, suggested it would hurt the country’s chances of being “a major start-up hub.” Yet while some are citing a French-led assault on free speech and innovation, the reality is more nuanced.
Eighteen months ago, I went to a party in San Francisco that was thrown to celebrate generative artificial intelligence (AI) as the next industrial revolution. The mood was cheerfully nihilistic. AI was about to demolish our way of life, said one partygoer. We were like farmers tending to our crops, unaware of the machinery that was on its way to chew us all up.
On Aug 30, Timor-Leste will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the UN-sponsored referendum which secured its independence after more than 400 years as a Portuguese colony and almost a quarter of a century under Indonesian occupation.
You’re already in line at Starbucks – having failed to order by app – when you spot one of them.That dude who is looking down not at a cellphone but at the Post-it note that holds the orders of his office mates. Which is confirming that you are going to be late for that next meeting, because this person plans to order six coffee beverages, each of which involves some combination of tall venti grande double-pump, one to four shots of espresso, half-caf, oat milk, nonfat milk, soy milk, milk milk, whipped cream, syrup, brown sugar, white sugar, no sugar and mocha drizzle, from the pike position with two and a half twists.
For more than a week, Mr Y lived in fear, crying alone in his bedroom, refusing to communicate with his family, as he believed he was under investigation for money laundering. He had lost $800,000 to a government official impersonation scam. I met Mr Y at a Meet-the-People Session.