Vivek Wadhwa

Editor’s note: Former Triangle tech entrepreneur turned academic, blogger and author Vivek Wadhwa says The battle between the FBI and Apple over the unlocking of a terrorist’s iPhone will likely require Congress to create new legislation. That’s because there really aren’t any existing laws which encompass technologies such as these. The fight is just beginning. SAN FRANCISCO – The battle between the FBI and Apple over the unlocking of a terrorist’s iPhone will likely require Congress to create new legislation. That’s because there really aren’t any existing laws which encompass technologies such as these. The battle is between security...

Analysis: Former Triangle tech entrepreneur turned academic, blogger and author Vivek Wadhwa says Apple is doing the tech industry a big disservice by choosing to fight with the FBI over accessing to a terrorist’s smartphone. SAN FRANCISCO – Imagine if the government required you to have a combination lock on your door and to give it the key. It would create security and privacy risks for you and your family. This is what could happen if we required the technology industry to add back doors to its software and devices. Hackers, criminals, and foreign governments could crack the code...

Editor’s note: Income equality – a hot-button political issue – is not going to improve; technology is about to make things much worse. It will, over the next decade, begin to disrupt almost every industry, wipe out millions of jobs, and make the rich even richer. Even though everyone will be able to live better and healthier lives and benefit from the technology advances, the widening gap will cause greater resentment and create a larger cauldron of dissent.  This is something we need to be prepared for, writes former Triangle tech entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa. SAN FRANCISCO – There are...

Editor’s note: Thinking of investing in Bitcoins? Bitcoin did have great potential, but it is damaged beyond repair, and a replacement is badly needed, writes former Triangle tech entrepreneur turned academic and author Vivek Wadhwa. Wadhwa will be one of the keynote speakers at the Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh next week on “Future Work.” SAN FRANCISCO – Not long ago, venture capitalists were talking about how Bitcoin was going to transform the global currency system and render governments powerless to police monetary transactions. Now the cryptocurrency is fighting for survival. The reality came to light on January 14,...

Editor’s note: Former Triangle tech entrepreneur turned academic and author Vivek Wadhwa sees tremendous change being driven worldwide by technology. This post follows up on Vivek’s analysis of technologies that reached tipping points in 2015. SAN FRANCISCO – For the past century, the price and performance of computing has been on an exponential curve. And as futurist Ray Kurzweil observed, once any technology becomes an information technology, its development follows the same curve, so we are seeing exponential advances in technologies such as sensors, networks, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The convergence of these technologies is making amazing things possible....

To the average person, it may seem that the biggest technology advances of 2015 were the larger smartphone screens and small app updates. But a lot more happened than that. A broad range of technologies reached a tipping point, from cool science projects or objects of convenience for the rich, to inventions that will transform humanity. We haven’t seen anything of this magnitude since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s. Here are the six: 1. The Internet and knowledge In the developed world, we have become used to having devices that connect and inform us and...

Editor’s note: Apple Pay is a threat to banks and credit cards, writes former Triangle entrepreneur-turned-academic and author Vivek Wadhwa. How so? He explains in detail, describing Apple Pay as a Trojan horse. SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Pay was launched last year, with lots of fanfare and support by the credit-card industry. Partnering with the banks that issue credit cards overcame the resistance that early entrants in mobile payments had faced. It also solved critical technology and infrastructure problems and offered the credit-card industry a new avenue for growth. Apple Pay isn’t a household name yet, but it is...

Editor’s note: As more toys become connected to the Internet, how many have lax security? And how many millions, or hundreds of millions, of children are in danger due to it? Former Triangle entrepreneur-turned-academic and author Vivek Wadhwa discusses the dangers of the Internet of Things. SAN FRANCISCO – It was not an auspicious beginning to the holiday season. On Black Friday, we learned that a hacker had broken into the servers of Chinese toymaker VTech and lifted the personal information of nearly five million parents and more than 200,000 children. The data haul included home addresses, names, birth dates,...