23andMe lays off 100 workers amid shrinking demand for DNA tests
If you're skittish about DNA testing services, you're not the only one -- and it's directly affecting one of the heavyweights in the field. The 23andMe team is...
Ben Silbermann: How Pinterest is trying to make its users feel better — Recode Decode
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about deliberately engineering happiness into the site, expanding into commerce, and competing with larger social and commerce tech companies. This interview was recorded in front of a live audience at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference, the Big Show, in New York City. Featuring: Ben Silbermann (@8en), CEO, Pinterest Host: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Reset, Recode’s new podcast that explores why — and how — tech is changing everything. A...
Last month I canceled a random charge for $4.99 per month from HP called "InstantInk". Wasn't sure what it was for. I've had it for over a year but had no idea what it did.I just found out what it did pic.twitter.com/lsFLDR5grv— Ryan Sullivan (@ryandonsullivan) January 17, 2020
Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’
Kaylen Ward's Twitter fundraiser for the Australian bushfire relief has ended. The Los Angeles-based model said she raised $1 million (by comparison Jeff Bezos...
Airbnb has a patent for AI that crawls and scrapes everything it can find on you, then judges whether you are conscientious & open or show signs of "neuroticism, involvement in crimes, narcissism, Machiavellianism, or psychopathy." Good luck challenging these judgments, too! https://t.co/b0wZgz85DL— Frank Pasquale (@FrankPasquale) January 17, 2020
‘This is some real-life ‘Black Mirror’ stuff’ — @AOC called out the hidden dangers of facial recognition tech, especially for people of color pic.twitter.com/NHDh3Sjewy— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 15, 2020
EU mulls five-year ban on facial recognition tech in public areas
The European Union is considering banning facial recognition technology in public areas for up to five years, to give it time to work out how to prevent abuses, according to proposals seen by Reuters.
Mix together a bit of freely accessible facial recognition software and a free live stream of the public space, and what do you get? A powerful stalker tool.
Robot Rights? Let's Talk about Human Welfare Instead
The 'robot rights' debate, and its related question of 'robot responsibility', invokes some of the most polarized positions in AI ethics. While some advocate for granting robots rights on a par...
BlackVue has an app that shows the location of drivers that opt-in. The creators say it shouldn’t be possible to track its users in bulk; we found otherwise.
A group tested Amazon's facial-recognition software on Denver City Council members. Nine of them were falsely identified as sex offenders, and in some cases the system was 92% confident they were a match https://t.co/PHBK2gWjUV @JessicaDenver7 pic.twitter.com/cpbMOax5An— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) January 14, 2020
1. [thread] We are filing legal complaints against six companies based on our research, revealing systematic breaches to privacy, by shadowy #OutOfControl #adtech companies gathering & sharing heaps of personal data. https://t.co/qGsiNSe7gJ #privacy pic.twitter.com/f1ReGIgUUn— Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad (@finnmyrstad) January 14, 2020
Blackbox AI – State Regulation or Corporate Responsibility?
“In the past a lot of S&P 500 CEOs wished they had started thinking sooner than they did about their Internet strategy. I think five years from now there will be a number of S&P 500 CEOs that will wish they’d started thinking earlier about their AI strategy.” Andrew Ng Introduction Artificial intelligence changes our […]
How “Good Intent” Undermines Diversity and Inclusion
Telling people to “assume good intent” is a sign that if they come to you with a concern, you will minimize their feelings, police their reactions, and question their perceptions. It tells marginal…