YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, and its algorithm drives most of the video views on YouTube. Previous Mozilla research determined that people are routinely recommended videos they don’t want to see, including violent content, hate speech, and political misinformation. [...] Source: Mozilla Foundation – YouTube User Control Study
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Color Of Change Launches Black Tech Agenda as a Roadmap for Racial Equity in Tech Policy | Color Of Change
Color Of Change Launches Black Tech Agenda as a Roadmap for Racial Equity in Tech Policy Racial justice organization outlines series of policy priorities to combat Big Tech’s unchecked power Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, today launched the “Black Tech Agenda” which is endorsed by several prominent members of Congress: Senator Cory Booker (NJ), Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Representative Robin Kelly (IL-02), and Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07). [...] Source: Color Of Change Launches Black Tech Agenda as a Roadmap for Racial Equity in Tech Policy | Color Of Change
Broadband funding for Native communities could finally connect some of America’s most isolated places | MIT Technology Review
The rolls of fiber-optic cable currently unwinding in a remote corner of northwest Montana represent a vital, long-overdue change for the region. Rural and Native communities in the US have long had lower rates of cellular and broadband connectivity than urban areas, where four out of every five Americans live. Outside the cities and suburbs, which occupy barely 3% of US land, reliable internet service can still be hard to come by. For decades, people who live in places like the Blackfeet Indian Reservation have made do with low bandwidth delivered through obsolete copper wires, or simply gone without. [...] Source: Broadband funding for Native communities could finally connect some of America’s most isolated places | MIT Technology Review
A Primer on AI in/from the Majority World | Data & Society
A Primer on AI in/from the Majority World is a curated collection of over 160 thematic works that serve as pathways to explore the presence of artificial intelligence and technology in the geographic regions that are home to the majority of the human population. Instead of assuming that knowledge and innovations move out of the so-called centers of Europe and the United States to the rest of the world, thinking from the “majority world” (a term coined by Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam) means tracing emerging forms of knowledge, innovation, and labor in former and still-colonized spaces. “Majority world” defines a community in terms of what it has, rather than what it lacks. Source: A Primer on AI in/from the Majority World | Data & Society
San Francisco has fewer pretrial detainees in jail. But at what cost? | Harvard Kennedy School
Since 2020, the number of individuals awaiting trial in San Francisco County who are required to wear an electronic monitoring (EM) device has increased by 308%. This explosion is the result of a decision in a case regarding defendants’ ability to pay cash bail and non-monetary release options. While many have applauded the solution as a way to end mass incarceration and reduce jail populations, others have pointed to the costs associated with pretrial monitoring—including psychological, social, and economic ones—and described it as an alternative form of incarceration. In new research, Sandra Susan Smith, director of the Wiener Center for Social Policy and faculty chair of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, closely followed the experiences of a large group of defendants enrolled in the pretrial monitoring program to study the effects of the new system. [...] Source: San Francisco has fewer pretrial detainees in jail. But at what cost? | Harvard Kennedy School
Critical Questions for Facial Recognition Technologies in Higher Education | USC MASTS
The use of FR technology introduces new, non-obvious dangers and potential sources of discrimination, and must be evaluated alongside all other uses of FR. As these systems continue to rapidly expand into unanticipated applications—particularly in times of crisis and uncertainty—institutions are often ill-prepared to fully evaluate the potential implications and substantial risks of FR adoption. In particular, uncritical adoption of these technologies could directly harm members of the university community, while normalizing dangerous new forms of surveillance, racial profiling, and automated monitoring of people in public. [...] Source: Critical Questions for Facial Recognition Technologies in Higher Education
How To Interview a Tech Company. A Guide for Students | AI Now Institute
We are currently in an unprecedented moment for tech workers. From refusing to build AI-enabled weapons, to pushing back against providing tech to ICE, to mass protests against harassment and discrimination, tech worker organizing around ethical issues has become one of today’s defining movements for justice. For those who want to work in technical industries and are concerned about harmful, biased, or exploitative tech, it can be challenging to navigate the recruitment and employment process. It is especially challenging for students, who often have significant financial obligations and less experience assessing the cultures within many tech environments. To help students better understand and investigate their options with future tech employers, AI Now is publishing How To Interview A Tech Company: A Guide for Students. [...] Source: How To Interview a Tech Company. A Guide for Students | by AI Now Institute | Medium
Beijing’s Plan to Control the World’s Data: Out-Google Google | News Week
Few cases better show how U.S.-China relations have deteriorated in the age of Big Data than the response Wang Jian got when he offered, at the height of the pandemic, to set up labs for COVID-19 testing in the U.S. Wang is a known quantity in the world of U.S. biotech. He cut his teeth as a genetics researcher at the major public research universities of Texas, Iowa and Washington. He's now the snowy-haired, charismatic chairman of Shenzen-based BGI, the world's largest biotech company, which for decades has been collaborating with some of America's leading geneticists. BGI participated in the global effort to sequence the first human genome, formed a partnership with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to identify genes associated with pediatric diseases, and named an institute in China after Harvard's George Church, a gene-editing pioneer, who continues to work with the company. [...] Source: Beijing’s Plan to Control the World’s Data: Out-Google Google
Cyber Insecurity in Healthcare: Cost & Impact on Patient Care | Proofpoint US
Healthcare IT and security professionals have spoken. Ponemon listened. In this study sponsored by Proofpoint, Ponemon surveyed 641 people responsible for security strategies – including setting IT cybersecurity priorities, managing budgets and selecting vendors and contractors. The goal was to understand the cybersecurity threats targeting healthcare organizations and the cost of responding to attacks that can endanger patient safety and care delivery. The results are truly eye opening. [...] Source: Cyber Insecurity in Healthcare: Cost & Impact on Patient Care | Proofpoint US
The AI Medicine Cabinet | The Internet Health Report 2022
Life, death and data. AI’s capacity to support research on human health is real. But so are the harms of biased datasets and misdiagnoses. How can AI developers build healthier systems? We take a look at a new dataset for Black skin health, a Covid chatbot in Rwanda, AI diagnostics in rural India, and more. [...] Source: The AI Medicine Cabinet — The Internet Health Report 2022