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Smart Software Recruited to Police Cops; Proposed TikTok Deal Silent on Algorithms
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Welcome back. Algorithms are becoming enmeshed in how we do things. Amid calls for law-enforcement overhauls in the U.S., a handful of police departments are testing an artificial-intelligence-powered tool designed to spot misconduct before an arrest turns deadly, as it did with George Floyd in Minneapolis. Smart software is also at the heart of a tug of war between the U.S. and China over video-sharing app TikTok, whose algorithm—and the data that feeds it—has helped amass more than 800 million users.
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The Trump administration has been critical of cities led by Democrats that have seen extensive street protests over the past few months.
PHOTO: PAULA BRONSTEIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Benchmark Analytics LLC has developed a software system that spots police misconduct, using machine learning to compare an officer’s actions against past incidents of cops using excessive force or other problematic behavior, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.
How it works. The system, called First Sign, parses arrest records, stop and service-call information, use-of-force data, internal-affairs reports, dispatch information and other data, and assigns each cop a risk score based on its findings.
Who’s using it. The Nashville, Tenn., police department deployed the system in July, while police in Albuquerque, N.M., are rolling it out in stages. The San Jose Police Department is set to begin an 18-month pilot program.
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A White House-approved plan to pair Chinese-owned TikTok with Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. on data-security grounds makes no mention of the video-sharing app’s algorithms and who controls them, the WSJ reports.
Why it matters. The proverbial secret sauce of the business, TikTok's AI-driven content-recommendation engine is widely acknowledged as a key to its rocket-fueled growth.
Who's the boss? Under the deal, the app's Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, will retain 80% ownership, but all parties continue to spar over what that really means.
The Great Firewall. The battle reflects a growing trend among governments world-wide to treat citizens’ data as a national-security issue, a move China embraced a decade ago.
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“TikTok Global shares will be distributed to their owners. Americans will be the majority and ByteDance will have no ownership in TikTok Global.”
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— Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck on the proposed ownership structure of ByteDance's TikTok app under a partnership deal with Oracle and Walmart
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International Business Machines Corp. and Nielsen Holdings PLC are working on an AI-powered service that targets digital ads by correlating weather and retail data, WSJ’s Jared Council reports.
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Sunny day drinking. Watson Advertising Weather Targeting uses machine-learning models to find hidden connections, such as consumers in a given market buying a certain type of wine when temperatures reach a certain level, and trigger relevant online ads.
Data-driven. The tool is powered by hundreds of millions of data points from IBM’s Weather Co. unit and Nielsen’s Retail Measurement Services, capturing product-level transaction data from more than 900,000 retailers across the globe.
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Nvidia Corp.'s silicon chips are able to perform complex AI calculations this many times faster compared with eight years ago, roughly doubling in speed each year, the company says.
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Shares of Snowflake began trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
PHOTO: SNOWFLAKE INC.
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Snowflake debut soars. Signaling the rising value of data in an increasingly AI-powered market, the data-warehousing company more than doubled its IPO price on its first day of trading, hitting a market value of $70.4 billion. (WSJ)
... How much data? International Data Corp. estimates that 59 million petabytes of data will be created, captured, copied and consumed in 2020, up from 45 million petabytes in 2019, WSJ’s Jared Council reports.
Shift to data-driven compliance. Companies are racing to meet expectations by the U.S. Justice Department, which in June instructed prosecutors to ask businesses how they use data to monitor risks, a role likely to be taken on by smart algorithms. (WSJ)
Congress calls for AI strategy. House lawmakers are proposing a national strategy aimed at remaining competitive in global AI development, citing a range of workforce issues and education, national security, research and development. (WSJ)
Green light for Zoox. The self-driving car venture, owned by Amazon.com Inc., received a permit from California state authorities to test vehicles without a backup driver. (Reuters)
Fighting online hate speech. A global team of scientists is using AI to combat the spread of anti-Semitism online, leveraging discourse analysts, computational linguists and insight from historians. (New York Post)
Facebook chases augmented reality. The social-media giant says it is about 10 years away from bringing "true" AR glasses to market, according to Facebook's chief scientist. (Reuters)
Crewless Mayflower sets sail. The U.S. ambassador to Britain officially launched an IBM-developed autonomous ship 400 years to the day its namesake left England carryng a group of Puritans. (Associated Press)
Federal agencies lean on AI. The use of smart applications to tackle soaring demand for unemployment benefits, health-care support and other public services is reshaping the way government agencies operate, according to a new report. (FedScoop)
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China has sped up development of a blacklist that could be used to punish American technology companies, but some leaders are hesitating to pull the trigger ahead of the U.S. election. (WSJ)
Nikola Corp. founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton is stepping down from the electric-truck startup after allegations from a short seller that he and the company had made false statements to investors. (WSJ)
U.S. officials are exploring concepts for a new 5G wireless network that would let Silicon Valley giants and other businesses tap valuable Pentagon airwaves, setting up a potential clash over how to deploy the next-generation technology. (WSJ)
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