Christopher Mims

The art and science of futuring is fast becoming a necessary skill, where we read signals, see trends and ruthlessly test our own assumptions, writes Christopher Mims.

As 2016 nears an end, five of the seven most valuable companies in the world are tech companies. That helps explain why this year was a difficult year for these companies, writes Christopher Mims.

A long trail of empirical evidence shows that increased productivity brought about by automation and invention leads to more wealth, cheaper goods and more jobs, writes Christopher Mims.

Keywords: Creating artificial intelligence systems that can be used for a variety of problems, and not just the narrow applications to which the technology has been put so far, could take decades, writes Christopher Mims.

Gigantic touch-screen devices are finding their ways into business, both as tools for customers and to get serious work done. These devices create new ways for people to collaborate, writes Christopher Mims.

While some companies like Google buck the trend, many others see spending on research as a speculative bet with an uncertain, and far distant, payoff, writes Christopher Mims.

Columnist Christopher Mims says U.S. manufacturing industries have an opportunity to use technology innovations to revolutionize production.

Tuesday’s election was an expression of voter angst that heralded a new type of populism. For Silicon Valley, it also marked the ascension of a vision starkly at odds with its own.

Chat is becoming the backbone of many businesses, bringing together both people and multiple software programs. The defining turf war of the next decade will be group chat, writes Christopher Mims.

Columnist Christopher Mims says the recent cyberattack that rendered more than 1,200 websites unreachable was a warning. Experts say a similar, or larger, attack could be launched, and we’d be powerless to prevent it.

Columnist Christopher Mims saw some curious results when he banned tablets in his house on weekdays. And new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics are backing up his experiment.

Keywords: Twitter is a media company that happens to be based in San Francisco, and it should be structured, led and valued as such. It is no longer a technology-driven hypergrowth unicorn, writes Christopher Mims.

Tech giants are working on conversation-based systems that could bring profound changes in how we interact with computers, writes columnist Christopher Mims.

For campaigns striving to get supporters to the polls, as well as change minds, the ability to “micro-target” is manna from heaven, writes Christopher Mims.

To judge by recent claims, “fully autonomous” self-driving technology is just around the corner. But hopping into a car and disappearing into sleep, food or our phones won’t happen for a long time, writes Christopher Mims.

We were promised the paperless office for 40 years, yet it’s only just becoming true, writes Christopher Mims. For the first time in history, there is a steady decline of about 1% to 2% a year in office use of paper.

The technology inside devices, such as the iPhone, is evolving in a way that opens new opportunities, writes Christopher Mims. For example, hardware makers’ primary response to the slowdown in improvements in chip performance has been to create customized chips for specific tasks.

New devices aim to offer protection from active shooters by transforming schools and other public spaces into ‘hardened targets,’ writes Christopher Mims.

In 2015, about one in every 150 cars sold in the U.S. had a plug and a battery. But mass adoption of electric vehicles is coming, and much sooner than most people realize.

Everyone is waiting for the Internet of Things. The funny thing is, it is already here. Contrary to expectation, though, it isn’t a thing at all—it is services.