Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency will not be the central element of the payment system of the same name, the company said. The original concept was rejected because of the claims of watchdogs in the summer of 2019. However, Facebook said the company remains “fully committed to the project.” According to The Information, the social network also postponed the launch of the Calibra cryptocurrency...

American automaker Ford Motor Co. will present an electric version of the Transit cargo van by 2022, the company said in a press release. The issue is planned in accordance with the previously announced plan of the company to spend $11.5 billion on the electrification of cars until 2022. “Commercial vehicles are an important component of our electrification strategy,” Ford Motor Co-Chief...

According to AgFunder, a specialized research company, investment in agricultural technology amounted to $ 19.8 billion in 2019, which is only 4.8% less than in the record year 2018. Experts note that agricultural technology startups not only attract multi-billion dollar investments, but also actively penetrate into the daily life of one of the most conservative sectors of the economy. So,...

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered several new antibiotic compounds using a neural network. This is a unique achievement in the history of medicine. One of the findings - halicin - can destroy even those bacteria that are resistant to all existing drugs. MIT scientists were the first in the world to discover antibiotics using artificial intelligence. As...

The European Data Protection Board sees a threat to the confidentiality of personal data in Google’s acquisition of Fitbit fitness tracker manufacturer, according to the regulator’s statement. “The possible further unification and accumulation of confidential personal data by the large technology company about people from Europe may entail a high level of risk for confidentiality and data...

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi has announced that it will develop a vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus. At the same time, the company will use its own experience in creating the anti-SARS vaccine; Sanofi expects this to accelerate and facilitate the work. In this work, the company intends to cooperate with the Office of Advanced Biomedical Research and Development of the US Department...

The IMF presented a study demonstrating feasibility of using publicly available big data arrays for macroeconomic planning. Researcher Serhan analyzed prospects of using Google trends to predict the number of tourists from the United States visiting the Bahamas. The study relied on search query data and statistics on tourist flows to the Bahamas in 2004–2018. In particular, the data was used for...

This year, the world expects a massive transition to the 5G standard - the fifth generation of cellular communications. It’s been tried on for several years: at the end of 2018, one of the companies launched a 5G network in the USA, and a new generation of communications was launched in South Korea and some cities in Switzerland at the beginning of 2019. Then, several cities of China launched the...

WhatsApp is unlikely to introduce ads in the near future. According to US media, Facebook abandoned plans to integrate advertising into this messenger. Instead, the social network will focus on paid features for entrepreneurs who communicate with customers on WhatsApp. Facebook abandoned previously discussed plans to integrate advertising into the WhatsApp messenger, writes The Wall Street...