ai
privacy
With Brits Used to Surveillance, More Companies Try Tracking Faces
Companies use UK’s omnipresent security cameras as cultural permission to bring facial-recognition tech to semi-public spaces, tracking criminal history but also ethnicity and other personal traits.
data
Inmates in Finland are training AI as part of prison labor
Grooming data for the machines has a human cost.
alexa
s5e11: Things That Have Caught My Attention
Dan Hon considers the challenges and pitfalls in designing a one-size-fits-all system that talks to children and, especially, teaches them new behaviors.
ai
AI Is Harder Than You Think
It seems the culmination of artificial intelligence is making salon appointments. In the New York Times, Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis say today’s data-crunching model for AI not panning out.
ai
Google Duplicitous
With the announcement of Google Duplex, Jeremy Keith wonders whether the machines augment us, or whether we now work for the machines.
ai
The Juvet Agenda
The Juvet Agenda lays out the urgent themes surrounding artificial intelligence and machine learning—and presents a set of provocations for teasing out a future we want to live in.
ai
Stop Pretending You Really Know What AI Is
“Artificial intelligence” is so broadly used that the phrase no longer has much practical meaning, bemoans John Pavlus at Quartz.
ai
AI Guesses Whether You're Gay or Straight from a Photo
The algorithm could correctly distinguish between gay and straight men 81% of the time, and 74% for women.
ai
The Pop-Up Employer: Build a Team, Do the Job, Say Goodbye
Noam Scheiber reports on algorithms that seek to build an entire organization for you with a click.
alexa
The BBQ and the Errant Butler
Marek Pawlowski shares a tale of a dinner party taken hostage by a boorish Alexa hell-bent on selling the guests music.
sentient design
AI First—with UX
AI assistants have trouble understanding user context, Mike Loukides writes, and that’s a tasty UX problem.
ai
In a Few Years, No Investors Are Going To Be Looking for AI Startups
VC Frank Chen writes that machine learning and artificial intelligence will be the humdrum norm in short order.
sentient design
The Future of AI Needs To Have More People in It
UC Berkeley’s Anca Dragan says algorithms need to get better at understanding human needs and behaviors.
ai
Melinda Gates and Fei-Fei Li Want to Liberate AI from “Guys With Hoodies”
“AI is about to make the biggest changes to humanity, and we’re missing a whole generation of diverse technologists and leaders.”
algorithms
How Germany’s Otto Uses Artificial Intelligence
Machine learning is trying to one-up just-in-time inventory with what can only be called before-it’s-time inventory.
sentient design
The Surprising Repercussions of Making AI Assistants Sound Human
Wired’s Elizabeth Stinson considers whether we really want human personality from our bots—or whether it’s just unhelpful misdirection.
ai
The Machine Learning Paradox
Mike Loukides explains why predictive algorithms must be imperfect (and error prone) in order to contend with real-world data.
algorithms
“Algorithms Aren’t Racist. Your Skin Is Just Too Dark.”
Joy Buolamwini surfaces bias in facial recognition software—and responds to some screwed-up criticism.