City Tech
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New AI software can turn regular security cameras into COVID-19 policy enforcement points

Jaime E. Love

Now being trialed in Georgia smart city Peachtree Corners, the new tech can pick up on people standing too close together and detect whether someone is wearing a mask.

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Image: Cawamo

Peachtree Corners, GA, a city northeast of Atlanta known for its pioneering use of smart city technology, is adding a new tool to its lineup: Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software that gives security cameras the ability to tell if people are violating COVID-19 regulations. 

The software, created by UK-based CCTV tech company Cawamo, can be used on any security camera, meaning there’s no need to buy new hardware in order to use it. Instead, the AI monitors live feeds and does its processing from the cloud, or with an optional on-site hardware device that relays data to Cawamo’s cloud platform for a second round of analysis before presenting results in a web portal or mobile app. As part of its

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Tech Deck
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New evidence that Big Tech is ‘MIA’ about climate policy

Jaime E. Love

News Highlights: New evidence that Big Tech is ‘MIA’ about climate policy

The Biden government links actions with words about climate – collecting the most impressive team of pro-climate experts, strategists and policy leaders ever, making the goal of fair climate policy a pinnacle priority of the legislative agenda for 2021 in Congress.

But tech industry leaders are failing to match their own pro-climate commitments with lobbying efforts, according to a new report from InfluenceMap. (Note: The author is a member of the InfluenceMap Advisory Board.) The report finds that Big Tech, the most powerful corporate voice for the climate, is usually lacking in action on Capitol Hill, just as this pressing issue approaches a policy showdown.

The new data shows that Big Tech’s track record of commitment to climate policy is so far negligible: across the board, InfluenceMap finds that “only 4 percent of Big Tech’s revealed lobby activity

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Business
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BOJ Won’t Dial Back Stimulus, Seeks More Nimble Policy: Deputy Governor Wakatabe | Investing News

Jaime E. Love

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan’s policy review in March won’t lead to a withdrawal of monetary stimulus, Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe said, stressing its readiness to sustain or ramp up support if the COVID-19 pandemic hurts the economy further.

Speaking to business leaders in an online meeting, Wakatabe said the review will discuss measures to ensure the BOJ can deal with any future shocks to the economy “effectively” and in a timely fashion.

The key would be to strike the right balance between the costs and benefits of the BOJ’s massive stimulus, so it becomes more sustainable and “nimble” in responding to changes in economic developments, Wakatabe said on Wednesday.

“What I’d like to emphasise is that the policy examination won’t be about dialling back monetary stimulus,” he said. “It isn’t aimed solely at containing the cost of our policy measures.”

As the coronavirus pandemic forces it to

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