Tech combats pandemics; Russian election interference; Disney post-Iger

Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, discusses tech news:

What role does technology play in combating potential pandemics?

A huge one. Technology moves quickly. Pandemics move quickly. You need technology to map it, you need technology in your response, you need new technology to build new hospitals quickly. There's a new story this week that was interesting about Chinese doctors using A.I. to diagnose coronavirus. Yet another good use of technology to combat a pandemic.

How is Russia interfering in the Democratic primary?

Well, Russian bots have been messing with all kinds of social media and they're doing it to promote Bernie Sanders, it seems. Now, why would they do that? Well, I don't know. A. Maybe they want chaos and they think Sanders will cause chaos. B. Maybe they want Trump to win again and they think Sanders is most likely to lose. C. Maybe they actually think Sanders will have the most generous policies towards Russia. Or D. Maybe they actually think the news would break about them supporting Sanders, and that would hurt Sanders, and really they're worried that Sanders would be the strongest opponent to Trump. Basically, we don't know. My guess is it's probably A, they are probably trying to create chaos.

Is Bob Iger's resignation as CEO of Disney a sign of trouble for the company?

I don't think so. Disney is in pretty good shape. The announcement he made was pretty rational. What I don't understand is why it happened right now? It's possible something else is going on, something fishy. That would be a bad sign. But based on what we know right now, I think it's okay.