Companies in Mexico embrace AI to resurrect the dead

4 December 2024 at 06:00

When Guadalupe González Rodríguez saw a Facebook post offering people artificial intelligence-generated animated images of their dead relatives, she was instantly interested. “I wanted to give my husband a video...

What we learned from reporting on global tech this year

Rest of World

By: Faisal Mahmud， Stephanie Wangari， Lucía Cholakian Herrera， Michelle Anindya and Zhaoyin Feng

4 December 2024 at 06:00

In 2024, Rest of World covered some of the most unexpected tech stories across the world: the impact of internet shutdowns on startups in Bangladesh, the Chinese app that’s driving...

Uber’s big plan for India: buses

Rest of World

By: Anisha Sircar

3 December 2024 at 06:00

Manvi Singh, a marketing executive in her early 20s, commutes over 20 kilometers to her office on the outskirts of Delhi every day. Until six months ago, this commute would...

How 2024’s tech trends changed our lives

Rest of World

By: Lam Le， Damilare Dosunmu and Viola Zhou

2 December 2024 at 06:00

In 2024, Rest of World covered some of the biggest shifts in the tech industry that have changed lives around the world: the rise of AI, Chinese companies expanding overseas,...

Breaking down the world’s tariffs against China’s tech industry

Rest of World

By: Selina Cheng

27 November 2024 at 06:00

In the 1970s, China became the world’s factory when it started allowing international manufacturers to set up shop and produce goods cheaply within its borders. Initially, Chinese factories made low-end...

India banned a Chinese app four years ago. Government agencies are still using it

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya

26 November 2024 at 06:00

In October, a popular YouTuber tweeted out a document issued by the Election Commission of India that had been scanned using CamScanner, a Chinese document-scanning app. CamScanner has been banned...

AI is making Philippine call center work more efficient, for better and worse

Rest of World

By: Michael Beltran

26 November 2024 at 06:00

“Thank you for calling. … You’re speaking with Renzo. This call may be recorded for — uhm — this call may be re—” Renzo Bahala, a customer service agent for...

How Singapore became the ideal testing ground for self-driving cars

Rest of World

By: Sandy Ong

25 November 2024 at 06:00

Singaporean Sharon Ong’s toddler son, like most kids his age, is fascinated by all modes of transportation. On a recent visit to the resort island of Sentosa, mother and son...

The Robobus, a self-driving minibus, makes a loop around the resort island of Sentosa in Singapore.

Courts in Buenos Aires are using ChatGPT to draft rulings

Rest of World

By: Victoria Mendizabal

22 November 2024 at 06:00

In May, the Public Prosecution Service of the City of Buenos Aires began using generative AI to predict rulings for some public employment cases related to salary demands. Since then,...

The Philippine army is recruiting young tech civilians to fight cyber attacks

Rest of World

By: Julia Ornedo

21 November 2024 at 06:00

Earlier this year, the Philippine Army put out an unusual call on Facebook, inviting civilian hackers to join its cybersecurity unit. “We have a greater enemy that wants to devour...

Recruits of the Philippine Army’s Cyber Battalion are seen working on computers at their headquarters on Monday, November 18, 2024, in Manila, Philippines.

New data shows the number of new mobile internet users is stalling

Rest of World

By: Khadija Alam and Russell Brandom

20 November 2024 at 06:00

When Facebook hit 1 billion users in 2012, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that when it comes to getting another billion users, “The big thing is obviously going to be mobile.”...

Chinese startups supported by Microsoft and Google incubator programs worked with police

Rest of World

By: Joanna Chiu

19 November 2024 at 06:00

Silicon Valley tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, have supported tech companies that provide censorship and policing technologies in China, according to publicly available corporate and promotional materials reviewed by...

Mexico’s women gig workers are making a dangerous job safer

Rest of World

By: Rest of World

19 November 2024 at 06:00

In Mexico City, growing numbers of women earn their living as gig workers. As women bear the burden of care work, apps like Uber, Didi, and Rappi offer them flexible...

The U.S. Chinese immigrants running Temu shipping centers from their homes

Rest of World

By: Viola Zhou

15 November 2024 at 06:00

In Eason Lin’s cramped one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, the living room is a maze of hundreds of boxes. All of the packages will soon ship out to Americans...

Door-to-door saleswomen are fueling Shein’s rise in Mexico

Rest of World

By: Daniela Dib

14 November 2024 at 06:00

Since 2022, Mariana Garfias Torres, a 30-year-old nutritionist, has been making an additional income by selling housewares from Betterware, a Mexican catalog company. She regularly circulates Betterware’s digital catalog to...

Grab built its own map in Southeast Asia, and is now going after Google

Rest of World

By: Michelle Anindya

13 November 2024 at 06:00

The alleys in South Jakarta are winding and narrow, sometimes just one meter wide, barely enough to fit a motorbike. A delivery rider has to squeeze past laundry racks and...

Phony X accounts are meddling in Ghana’s election

Rest of World

By: Caroline Haskins

12 November 2024 at 06:00

As Ghana approaches its presidential election on December 7, researchers have uncovered a network of 171 bot accounts on X that use ChatGPT to write posts favorable to the incumbent...

Amazon and Walmart couldn’t kill India’s mom-and-pop stores. But rapid delivery might

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya and Adnan Bhat

12 November 2024 at 06:00

Mahadev Waghji Patel ran Choice Mart for nine years in an affluent neighborhood of Mumbai. His local customers relied on the store for their monthly groceries, and continued to come...

Argentina’s banks accuse MercadoLibre of monopolizing the market

Rest of World

By: David Feliba

7 November 2024 at 06:00

In a remote stretch of Argentina’s Patagonia, Sheriff Miguel Hernández isn’t just keeping the peace. He has also become the town’s online shopping expert. The sheriff on horseback purchases items...

Malaysia’s new data centers create thousands of jobs — and worries about power and water shortages

Rest of World

By: Ushar Daniele and Khadija Alam

6 November 2024 at 06:00

When Granill Ding Simon moved to the Malaysian state of Johor six years ago, the mechanical engineer traded city life for what he thought would be a slower pace among...

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