Blaise Zerega
VentureBeat
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Past articles by Blaise:
Google’s use of AI to mimic humans is unethical and bad UX
Google CEO Sundar Pichai took a giant leap in the wrong direction this week. At his company’s I/O developer conference, Pichai wowed the crowd by using a virtual assistant to fool people, mak… → Read More
Kai-Fu Lee talks AI-driven unemployment: ‘Who says we need jobs?’
With more than 1.7 million followers on Twitter, Kai-Fu Lee knows how to attract attention. As head of Beijing’s Sinovation Ventures (and former head of Google China), Lee is an often outspoken and… → Read More
AI Weekly: Musk and Zuck are missing the point
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a little tit-for-tat this week over artificial intelligence. Does it represent an existential threat to humanity, as Musk argues, or does it hold great promise to improve our lives, as Zuckerberg believes? → Read More
Meet Anna Hensel, VentureBeat’s new Heartland Tech reporter
We’re thrilled to announce that Anna Hensel is joining VentureBeat as a reporter today. Her areas of coverage will include news and analysis for our Heartland Tech Channel, which explores the technological and economic divide between Silicon Valley and the rest of America. She is based in New York City. → Read More
Heartland Tech Weekly: ‘The world of software jobs is flattening’
Today’s report about a 6.7 percent drop in software-related job postings over the past five years for San Jose, California should surprise no one. This shift is consistent with two themes that we’ve reported on and points to a tipping point. Have we reached “peak” Silicon Valley? → Read More
Silicon Valley’s share of software jobs falls as new tech hubs rise
New software jobs are being created outside Silicon Valley and other tech centers faster than ever. Over the past five years, cities like Seattle; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; and Austin, among others, have all seen rapid growth in software-related job openings, according to a new report from online job site, Glassdoor. Meanwhile, San Jose, California’s share of all software-related jobs fell from… → Read More
AI Weekly: Walmart’s machine learning advantage
Here's this week's newsletter: Last week, VentureBeat invited Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, and other giants of AI into a big tent with brands like Coca-Cola, The New York Times, Tumi, and Walmart, as well as such promising startups as Bark.us, Mezi, Visabot, and Octane AI. The gathering was MB 2017, and the need for practical AI was on nearly everyone's mind. → Read More
Silicon Valley tech firms power job growth in the hinterlands
The growth speaks for itself. The concentration of tech talent in Madison, Wisconsin increased by more than 30 percent over the past two years. In Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City (Missouri), Miami, and Salt Lake City, there were gains of more than 20 percent. Oh, and Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, Ohio? They each registered rises of more than 11 percent. → Read More
Heartland Tech Weekly: In search of ‘social capital’
It’s a missing ingredient in the lives of many heartland entrepreneurs, the secret sauce of personal connections that can help transform ambition to success. It’s advice, know-how, a willingness and ability to make key introductions. It’s mentorship and friendship. → Read More
Heartland tech weekly: VC funding heats up
Here’s this week’s newsletter: Summer is upon us, and startup activity is keeping pace with the rising temperatures. Startups across the U.S. raised $21.78 billion over 1,958 deals in the three months ending June 20 — that’s a $5 billion jump from Q1, according to Pitchbook-NVCA Monitor. (For 2017, VC investing should beat last year’s $71 billion, but it’s likely to be less than the $78.6… → Read More
New York Times digital subscriptions get boost from AI and ‘Trump Bump’
To ape Charles Dickens, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times — for media today. Even as President Donald Trump assails news coverage of his administration, his election has reminded America’s citizenry of the value of a vigorous and independent press. And the standard-bearer for speaking truth to power is, in many ways, the New York Times. → Read More
How to watch Day Two of MB 2017 live
VentureBeat's MB 2017: How AI, messaging, and personalization will rock your world resumes today. Day two continues an exploration of how artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies are affecting the entire marketing ecosystem. Every brand, marketer, product manager, and innovator must be ready to harness AI’s impact as it propels intelligent assistants, bots, smart voice,… → Read More
How to watch MB 2017 live
VentureBeat today opens MB 2017: How AI, messaging, and personalization will rock your world. Artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies are affecting the entire marketing ecosystem. Every brand, marketer, product manager, and innovator must be ready to harness AI’s impact as it propels intelligent assistants, bots, smart voice, personalization, and more into the future. Over two… → Read More
AI Weekly: Is Alibaba trying to mimic Amazon’s Alexa business?
It was only a matter of time. Alibaba has introduced a device that is about $100 to $275 cheaper than those made by Amazon, Google, and Apple. The new device will sell for about $75, while Amazon's Echo list price is $180, Google Home goes for $129, and the Apple HomePod will cost a whopping $349. Let the voice assistant price wars begin! → Read More
Heartland tech weekly: What ‘the value of work’ means
Here's this week's newsletter: Fourth of July celebrations took place across America yesterday, our nation’s Independence being one of the few things that everyone can agree on. Perhaps another is the importance of work -- but not just work. Rather, a good-paying job that, aside from providing a wage, also offers less tangible rewards like meaning, a sense of pride, even beauty. → Read More
Why I outsourced to Michigan instead of India
For one CTO, offshoring software development seemed like a good idea. Six years ago, the CTO joined a fintech company that had a history of sending coding projects to India, China, Vietnam, and Ukraine. Like so many U.S. corporations, this fintech company sent work overseas to take advantage of low-cost labor. However, after one year on the job, the CTO changed course and began outsourcing to… → Read More
Reno entrepreneurs praise low costs, but cite capital and talent challenges
Starting a tech company in Silicon Valley is very, very hard, and conventional wisdom holds that doing so elsewhere would be even more difficult. But is it? While founders everywhere confront such challenges as determining product-to-market fit, developing supply chain management, and establishing reliable, recurring revenue streams, those outside Silicon Valley -- or New York and Boston, for… → Read More
AI Weekly: Facebook cannot please all the people all the time
Facebook’s flawed approach to censorship reveals a challenge faced by AI. According to leaked documents, human censors at the social network have devised well-intentioned guidelines for removing posts containing hate speech or other offensive content. In practice, however, they create a confusing, often contradictory set of practices. → Read More
Introducing Heartland Tech Weekly: I want YOU to create tech jobs
VentureBeat’s Heartland Tech Channel tracks the most important news and analysis about the technological and economic divide between Silicon Valley and the rest of America. Each week, we select the top stories and present them in a free newsletter. We include news stories by VentureBeat staff, guest articles from leading voices in this important conversation, and a number of posts from other… → Read More
A 3-point plan to create tech jobs in the heartland
For Patrick McKenna, the 44:64 figure was the turning point. Shortly after President Donald Trump won the 2016 election, analysis of voter turnout showed that while Hillary Clinton captured only 44 percent of the electoral college, those votes represented 64 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. “That’s one picture,” McKenna said. “But then if you flip the numbers you see a very different… → Read More