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Enlarge / Chairman Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) (right) speaks with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing April 27, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony on the effect social media companies' algorithms and design choices have on users and discourse. (credit: Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, there was a striking change of scenery—rather than grilling the floating heads of Big Tech CEOs, senators instead questioned policy leads from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube on the role algorithms play in their respective platforms. The panel also heard from two independent experts in the field, and the results were less theatrical and perhaps more substantive.

Both Democrats and Republicans expressed concerns over how algorithms were shaping discourse on social platforms and how those same algorithms can drive users toward ever more extreme content. “Algorithms have great potential for good,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). “They can also be misused, and we the American people need to be reflective and thoughtful about that.”

The Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter execs all emphasized how their companies’ algorithms can be helpful in achieving shared goals—they are working to find and remove extremist content, for example—though all the execs admitted de-radicalizing social media was a work in progress.

Enlarge / A woman watches a mask—a part used in wafer conception—at a show room of the 12-inch United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) factory in Tainan, southern Taiwan. (credit: Sam Yeh | Getty)

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), the world’s fourth-largest contract chipmaker, is expanding its capacity to produce mature technology chips in exchange for financial guarantees, in response to the shortage gripping the global semiconductor supply chain.

UMC said it would add capacity for manufacturing 20,000 wafers a month at 28 nm, one of the process technology nodes worst-hit by the global chip shortage, at an existing fabrication plant, or “fab,” in Tainan.

The investment will drive up the company’s capital spending for this year by 53 percent to $2.3 billion, but it is made under a deal that commits several of UMC’s largest customers to pay deposits upfront and guarantee certain orders at a fixed price.

Enlarge / Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin Jr. are seen in quarantine, after the Apollo 11 mission. (credit: NASA)

Michael Collins—a two-time astronaut who piloted the command module during the historic Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the Moon—died on Wednesday after battling cancer, his family said. He was 90 years old.

"He spent his final days peacefully, with his family by his side," the family said in a statement. "Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge, in the same way. We will miss him terribly."

With Collins' death, only 10 of the 24 humans who have flown into deep space remain alive: Collins' colleague on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin, as well as Bill Anders, Frank Borman, Charlie Duke, Fred Haise, Jim Lovell, Ken Mattingly, Harrison Schmitt, David Scott, and Tom Stafford.

(credit: Aurich Lawson)

A new deposition (first spotted by The Verge) in the Epic Games v. Apple case reveals Apple's inner deliberations over possibly bringing iMessage to Android, including worries from Apple executives that if Google bought WhatsApp, the search giant could win the messaging wars.

Once upon a time, Google was facing a major messaging decision as it was considering buying WhatsApp. The rumors first started in April 2013, when Digital Trends reported that Google was negotiating a $1 billion buyout of the company. WhatsApp officially shot the rumor down just a few days later, but between the start and end of this rumor, Apple's executives started talking.

Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services, started making the case that the company should fight Google+WhatsApp with iMessage on Android, writing in an email, "We really need to bring iMessage to Android. I have had a couple of people investigating this but we should go full speed and make this an official project."