Data, Tech & Black Communities

Two weeks or so before Elon Musk prevailed in his attempt to strike a deal to buy Twitter, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur Keith Rabois tweeted a story from Musk’s startup days. Once, at Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Musk had noticed a group of interns milling around while they waited in a line for coffee.

Work has changed forever as employers focus on flexibility and retention of staff

Schools minister Lotta Edholm moves students off digital devices and on to books and handwriting, with teachers and experts debating the pros and cons

Education technology powered by artificial intelligence appears to make classrooms more equitable, but the tech may do more harm than good.

Senate inquiry into Australian consultancy industry concedes its integrity has been undermined by reliance on case studies generated by Google Bard AI tool

Hundreds of documents obtained by 404 Media show how Fusus, a system for linking a town’s security cameras into one central hub and adding AI to them, has spread across the country.

Four critical questions parents and educators should be asking

Technology is reshaping our increasingly interconnected world. The use of technology in education has been growing in recent years, and saw an immense expansion during the Covid-19 pandemic as school closures promoted a mass turn to online platforms. Technology in education - often described as EdTech - takes many forms.

A report questions the language used for some checks, including assessing whether the baby is "pink all over".

Tech CEOs want us to believe that generative AI will benefit humanity. They are kidding themselves

This essay offers seven intersectional feminist principles for equitable and actionable COVID-19 data, drawing from the authors' prior work on data feminism. Our book, Data Feminism (D'Ignazio and Klein, 2020), offers seven principles which suggest possible points of entry for challenging and changing power imbalances in data science. In this essay, we offer seven sets of examples, one inspired by each of our principles, for both identifying existing power imbalances with respect to the impact of the novel coronavirus and its response, and for beginning the work of change.

Inside the protests taking place at the online giant which is accused of exploiting workers and awarding derisory pay offers

Although data systems are rapidly rolled out in the public sector and state-citizen relations become increasingly automated, there is little public knowledge about these developments, with few possibilities to intervene into, and participate in, decisions about the use of data systems. How, then, do we advance people’s voice in the deployment of data and AI? How do we democratise datafied governance?

The AI-powered online doctor app is ditching its controversial NHS contracts as it focuses on the US market.

Surfacing Systemic (In)justices: A Community View shares findings from an extensive Europe- wide consultation undertaken by Systemic Justice that seeks to learn from the perspectives and experiences of affected community groups and organisations, in order to inform potential litigation and other strategies for change.

The Dutch tax authority ruined thousands of lives after using an algorithm to spot suspected benefits fraud — and critics say there is little stopping it from happening again.

Sahdya Darr on Twitter. As many folks leave Twitter for Mastodon, I want to draw attention to thoughts being shared and discussions taking place about Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter beyond white, left leaning accounts👇🏼— Sahdya Darr (@sahdyadarr) November 9, 2022

At EdTech Hub, we’ve been reflecting on how coloniality is embedded in the work we do: from the colonial roots of the international development sector, to colonial practices embedded in research methods, to “core-to-periphery” design and deployment of EdTech interventions. We’ve just begun this journey, but in trying to embody one of our EdTech Hub values of ‘fearless and humble…

Since April, DALL-E has triggered an explosion of images generated using artificial intelligence. But the technology is spreading faster than creators can shape norms around its use.

I’m thrilled to share this new creative & educational video, “Toxic Clouds and Dirty Data” on the environmental impacts of data centers made in collaboration with the talented @adamcooperteran w/ support from @KleinmanEnergy and @internetsociety https://t.co/vLuesFXHwS— Lauren Bridges (@Laurenebridges) October 12, 2022

Energy policy research from the University of Pennsylvania. A project from Kleinman Center grantee Lauren Bridges, made in collaboration with artist and media-maker Adam Cooper–Terán, explores why we need to rethink the energy, water, and waste-intensive model of cloud computing.

Nature - An audit of commercial facial-analysis tools found that dark-skinned faces are misclassified at a much higher rate than are faces from any other group. Four years on, the study is shaping research, regulation and commercial practices.

In light of fast-growing popular, political and professional discourses around AI in education, this article outlines five broad areas of contention that merit closer attention in future discussion and decision-making. These include: (1) taking care to focus on issues relating to 'actually existing' AI rather than the overselling of speculative AI technologies; (2) clearly foregrounding the limitations of AI in terms of modelling social contexts, and simulating human intelligence, reckoning, autonomy and emotions; (3) foregrounding the social harms associated with AI use; (4) acknowledging the value-driven nature of claims around AI; and (5) paying closer attention to the environmental and ecological sustainability of continued AI development and implementation. Thus, in contrast to popular notions of AI as a neutral tool, the argument is made for engaging with the ongoing use of AI in education as a political action that has varying impacts on different groups of people in various educational contexts.

Here are 18 books written by scholars and technology experts that cut through all the hype and will forever change the way you think about…

Today, technical experts hold the tools to conduct system-scale algorithm audits, so they largely decide what algorithmic harms are surfaced. Our #cscw2022 paper asks: how could *everyday users* explore where a system disagrees with their perspectives?

In this report, researchers develop “minimum ethical and legal standards” for the governance of facial recognition technology and test them on three British police deployments – with all three failing.

A BIG PROBLEM with the fediverse is that there’s no mechanism for call and response — quote tweeting — and this is purposeful. This is going to be an issue with trying to port Black Twitter, which is prob one reason @shengokai says BT is non-fungible. https://t.co/dNx3NFHssc— Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@IBJIYONGI) November 7, 2022