Awesome, not awesome.
#Awesome
“Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been working to improve the state of global health through his nonprofit foundation for 20 years, and today he told the nation’s premier scientific gathering that advances in artificial intelligence and gene editing could accelerate those improvements exponentially in the years ahead. “We have an opportunity with the advance of tools like artificial intelligence and gene-based editing technologies to build this new generation of health solutions so that they are available to everyone on the planet. And I’m very excited about this,”” — Alan Boyle, Journalist Learn More from Yahoo >
#Not Awesome
“..In Philadelphia, an algorithm created by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania has helped dictate the experience of probationers for at least five years. The algorithm is one of many making decisions about people’s lives in the United States and Europe. Local authorities use so-called predictive algorithms to set police patrols, prison sentences and probation rules… It is often not clear how the systems are making their decisions. Is gender a factor? Age? ZIP code? It’s hard to say, since many states and countries have few rules requiring that algorithm-makers disclose their formulas.” — Cade Metz and Adam Satariano, Reporters Learn More from The New York Times >
What we’re reading.
1/ Job seekers are forced to find creative ways to get their resumes in the hands of a human as ever more automated tools are introduced to scan applications. Learn More from Vice >
2/ Critics in the U.K. argue that the government is not being nearly transparent enough about how they’re using automated tools to make decisions that impact citizens’ lives. Learn More from TechCrunch >
3/ Clearview AI, the facial recognition software company, finds itself in more hot water as the ACLU alleges that the company’s independent study is “absurd on many levels and further demonstrates that Clearview simply does not understand the harms of its technology in law enforcement hands.” Learn More from BuzzFeed News >
4/ Sex robots made to resemble human beings will introduce a host of ethical dilemmas as they reach the mainstream. Learn More from BBC >
5/ AI researchers develop algorithms that can get a robot to navigate a room and find an object inside “just by telling it the object’s name.” Learn More from MIT Technology Review >
6/ The White House asks the science community to invest more in AI and machine learning research — and less in critical basic research. Learn More from Quartz >
7/ Companies that laud their AI technology as making breakthroughs — but don’t have any scientific proof — are doing harm to both consumers and the field of artificial intelligence. Learn More from MIT Technology Review >
Links from the community.
“AI-Generated News” submitted by Samiur Rahman (@samiur1204). Learn More from Not Real News >
“Quantifying Independently Reproducible Machine Learning” submitted by Avi Eisenberger (@aeisenberger). Learn More from The Gradient >
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