When Iran’s streets first flooded with protesters over the murder of Mahsa Amini by police exactly one year ago, it didn’t take long before the country’s government started throttling citizens’ internet access.

Outline, a virtual private network (VPN) tool from Google’s internet freedom-focused Jigsaw unit, was one of many such web-surfing workarounds blocked at times in the crackdown, and the team struggled to circulate timely updates to the apps and services that rely on it in order to get them back online.

That experience was one of the primary motivations behind a new software development kit the Jigsaw group released this week that allows developers for other VPN tools, social networks, and news outlets to build censorship circumvention directly into their apps.

“It was a result of seeing what more we could do, but not being ready the last time, not being ready for the Iran protests that just happened, and wanting to be ready going forward,” Google Jigsaw CEO Yasmin Green told Tech Brew.

Keep reading here.—PK

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Even the diplomats and world leaders descending on Manhattan this week for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly aren’t immune to the nonstop AI hype train.

At a tech-focused press event at the UN headquarters, Amandeep Singh Gill, the secretary general’s envoy on technology, said the office believes tech like AI can help achieve the UN’s ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Gill said the office plans to announce its AI advisory body next month; it will be tasked with identifying how the tech can help meet the SDGs while also outlining potential risks and fashioning recommendations for guardrails to rein in its worst tendencies.

The comments come as progress toward the SDGs has been decidedly sluggish since the UN first established the benchmarks in areas like education, climate change, and food insecurity in 2015.

“We are at the midpoint of agenda 2030, and we’ve fallen behind,” Gill said. “We need to catch up fast, and there is no way we can do that without leveraging technology responsibly.”

Keep reading here.—PK

The future of spinal surgery might receive a welcome technological advancement: a computer-assisted navigation platform that helps surgeons perform complicated operations. And it may save health systems millions on additional technology costs.

Seattle-based medical technology company Proprio has started training surgeons to use its FDA-cleared device to navigate spinal surgeries through artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and light field.

The technology in Paradigm, a navigation platform, helps surgeons digitally map and visualize the surgery site. It also has the potential to decrease complications and make operations more efficient.

“[Spinal operations] are very delicate, complicated surgeries. So we felt like this is a great place to start with applying the technology so that we can make these types of surgeries safer,” Samuel Browd, Proprio’s co-founder and chief medical officer, told Healthcare Brew. “This is going to be broadly applicable to not just neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, but a bunch of different things.”

Keep reading here.—KW

Charge up your curiosity! Join us at Tech Brew’s free virtual event and explore the global takeover of electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Discover how these innovations are reshaping industries and government regulations. RSVP now!

This editorial content is sponsored by NI.

Stat: 20%. That’s how much Meta’s 2024 EU ad revenue could plummet if 60% of EU users of Meta platforms “opt out of seeing ads based on their activity on Meta’s apps,” The Information reported, citing The Benchmark Co., a research firm.

Quote: “There are many people who have found ways to use [generative AI] but the average person is still saying ‘I haven’t found a way to integrate it into my personal life and I don’t necessarily fully trust these language models because they make things up.’”—Jack Krawczyk, the head of product for Bard, to the Washington Post in a story about how Google is integrating its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, into Docs and Gmail

Read: Kids deserve privacy online. They’re not getting it (The Atlantic)

Tech superheroes, assemble!: Time to level up your cybersecurity game. Join IT Brew on Sept. 28 to uncover the secrets to safeguarding your startup or SMB. Learn to defend your data like a pro.*

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*Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/31/financial-help-can-lead-to-happiness-how-to-find-the-right-professional.html

**Facet Wealth, Inc. (“Facet”) is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. This is not an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to purchase securities. This is not investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Based on a study conducted by Facet in April 2023. A statistically valid sample of members following Facet’s current planning process demonstrated that more than half of these members, defined here as a majority, achieved value greater than their planning fee. This value was shown to reoccur on an annual basis. Assumptions included average expenses and fees, using retirement tax savings, portfolio expenses and tax loss harvesting as value drivers using Facet’s investment services, and discounting value to align with the acceptance of Facet recommendations. Facet assesses clients an annual flat fee for service based on the complexity of planning needs. There is no separate or additional fee for investment management. This is not a guarantee or prediction of actual results for any member and results may vary by member. Some value like tax loss harvesting may vary year to year.