Technology

SEATTLE — Amazon said on Wednesday that its shareholders had voted down proposals that would have pushed the company to reconsider its societal impact in two key areas: facial recognition and climate change. The proposals asked Amazon to develop a more comprehensive approach to reducing its carbon footprint and put the brakes on how the […]

MacKenzie Bezos, who finalized her divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos earlier this year, is pledging to give away half her fortune to charity. The novelist said Tuesday that she signed The Giving Pledge, a campaign to get the ultra-wealthy to pledge at least half their fortune to charitable causes. It was created

The reliance on temporary help has generated more controversy inside Google than it has at other big tech outfits, but the practice is common in Silicon Valley. Contingent labor accounts for 40 to 50 percent of the workers at most technology firms, according to estimates by OnContracting, a site that helps people find tech contracting

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is urging world leaders to acknowledge that global warming “is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.” Thunberg told political and business leaders at a conference in Austria on Tuesday that it’s their job to inform the public about the seriousness of the situation and the need for drastic action.

BEIJING — In all likelihood, the enduring physical legacy of China’s internet boom will not be the glass-and-steel office complexes or the fancy apartments for tech elites. It will be the plastic. The astronomical growth of food delivery apps in China is flooding the country with takeout containers, utensils and bags. And the country’s patchy

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with its long days of fasting and prayer meant to draw worshippers closer to God and away from worldly distractions, is being reshaped by technology. People in the Middle East spend close to 58 million more hours on Facebook during Ramadan and watch more YouTube videos — everything from

“We strongly disagree with the judge’s conclusions, her interpretation of the facts and her application of the law,” Don Rosenberg, the company’s executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement on Wednesday. Qualcomm’s stock fell 11 percent in trading on Wednesday. Judge Koh’s 233-page decision, which followed a 10-day trial in January, did

It’s shaping up to be a deadly year for livestock in the American Southwest as the number of cows and calves killed by Mexican gray wolves has skyrocketed, aggravating an already tenuous relationship between U.S. wildlife managers, environmentalists and rural residents. Federal reports show the endangered wolves have been blamed for the deaths of 88

Why do most virtual assistants that are powered by artificial intelligence — like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa system — by default have female names, female voices and often a submissive or even flirtatious style? The problem, according to a new report released this week by Unesco, stems from a lack of diversity within the

China has deployed an unlikely voice in its trade war with the U.S.: Trevor Noah of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. A brief clip from the comedian’s “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know” segment on Chinese equipment maker Huawei’s dominance in next-generation 5G mobile technology ran on state broadcaster CCTV’s national lunchtime news on