CTech's Sunday Roundup of Israeli Tech News

U.S. ambassador to Israel was tricked into investing in an Israeli winery, a lawsuit alleges; Waze Hebrew voice sues Apple for Siri identity jacking

U.S. ambassador to Israel was tricked into investing in an Israeli winery, a lawsuit alleges. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was presented with allegedly fraudulent documents when he agreed to invest $730,000 in an Israeli wine company, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday to a Tel Aviv District Court. Read more

 

Vineyard (illustration). Photo: AFP

 

Waze Hebrew voice sues Apple for Siri identity jacking. The longtime Hebrew female voice of navigation app Waze was surprised to learn her voice doubles as Siri. She takes particular issue with the type of content her voice is coaxed into saying as Apple’s digital voice assistant. "Her voice on the Siri app is nothing but syllables joined together by an algorithm," Apple said in response. Read more

 

Opinion | Is CRISPR the new in vitro fertilization? New technologies always carry the risk of giving birth to a Dr. Frankenstein, but usually even those initially tested outside of the medical ethical consensus become widely-accepted and self-policed, writes researcher Dov Greenbaum. Read more

 

Britain’s HSBC delists investment in Israeli defense contractor Elbit, reports say. Campaigners framed the decision as a Pro-BDS win. Elbit says it has not received any such announcement from the British Bank. Read more

 

Telco 2030 | Without better broadband infrastructure, Israel will lag behind in productivity, official says. Better broadband infrastructure is key to all technological innovation, Shira Greenberg, an official at the Israeli Ministry of Finance said speaking at Calcalist’s telecommunications conference. Read more

 

Opinion | The boundary between earth and space is the first hurdle. As humanity grows ever closer to space travel and all its legal complexities, one global consensus must be reached first—where, exactly, is space? Read more

 

Asos executives to visit Israel in search of local startups. A delegation of Asos marketing and technology executives will meet with startups developing retail-related technologies. Read more