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Bias Watchdogs Get More Bite; Geico Accelerates Crash Claims
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Welcome back. Large tech firms’ battle against algorithmic bias is heating up, as more apps powered by artificial intelligence hit the market—and more users experience lopsided results firsthand. Case in point: Twitter’s botched photo cropper. Designed to automate the process of resizing shared photos in personal-account feeds, the app’s algorithm had a tendency now and then to crop out people of color from group photos. To prevent such glitches, Twitter and other big AI developers say they are beefing up internal ethics teams. The goal is to build fairness into algorithms from the start, before they leave the drawing room.
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Rumman Chowdhury, leader of Twitter's Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability team.
PHOTO: TWITTER INC.
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In the wake of high-profile racial bias and fairness cases, companies including Google, Twitter and Salesforce.com say they plan to bulk up ethics teams responsible for evaluating the behavior of algorithms, giving them a bigger role in policing AI, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.
Photo finish. Twitter recently axed an AI-powered app that automatically resized group photos posted online, after an internal ethics team found people of color were more likely than white people to be cropped out.
More clout. As ethics teams grow, their role is expanding from running software risk assessments and developing fairness and explainability tools, to actually working with product development teams to mitigate issues ahead of software releases.
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google last week struck a multiyear deal with national hospital chain HCA Healthcare Inc. to develop healthcare algorithms using patient records, gathered from across roughly 2,000 medical centers in 21 states, and raising concerns over data privacy, The Wall Street Journal reports.
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Why now. Google and HCA say data fed into the right algorithms can help improve hospital operating efficiency, monitor patients and guide doctors’ decisions, according to the companies. Other tech giants have struck similar deals.
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Is it safe? Personal patient information is protected under the federal health-privacy law, though some industry watchers consider the legislation outdated, saying its protections haven’t kept pace with the technology sector’s growing demand for patient data.
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“Children have the right to privacy too, and it’s not something parents can just take away."
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— Sun Chang, a 41-year-old civil servant in Shanghai, on sales of a smart lamp that monitors students' study habits.
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A Geico booth in 2019 at the Omaha, Neb., annual meeting of the insurer’s owner, Berkshire Hathaway.
PHOTO: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS
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Less Than Fifteen Minutes
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Berkshire Hathaway-owned Geico, the nation’s second-biggest auto insurer, will try to speed up vehicle repairs for its policyholders by running photographs of damaged vehicles through AI software, The Wall Street Journal reports.
How it works. Using software from Tractable Ltd., photos of a damaged car are run through algorithms trained on millions of vehicle-repair photos and insurance claims, producing an estimate within minutes.
Setting standards. Geico’s size as part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire conglomerate means its moves are often followed by other car insurers, so its use of AI could become standard industry practice.
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ILLUSTRATION: GIACOMO BAGNARA
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Limited spectrum space, no killer apps and a lack of clarity on future revenue are impeding the rollout of fifth-generation wireless networks, leaving service capacities able to shoulder data-heavy tools unlikely to reach most Americans any time soon, WSJ’s Jared Council reports.
Lack of infrastructure. Airwave space that balances fast transmission speeds and long signal ranges is limited, requiring new network equipment that isn’t always manufactured in the U.S.
Software gap. Industry observers say there are still no standout apps to spur demand and drive adoption the way mobile video did for 4G.
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66.9 Mbps
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The average 5G download speed in the U.S., compared with average speeds above 300 Mbps in South Korea and Taiwan.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, seen in 2019, is trying to broaden the company’s focus with the proposed acquisition of British chip designer Arm Holdings.
PHOTO: PATRICK T. FALLON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Nvidia posts record sales. Buoyed by demand for semiconductors used in videogaming, cryptocurrency and AI applications, chip maker Nvidia Corp. last week reported $1.91 billion in net income for its most recent quarter, more than double the year-prior figure. (The Wall Street Journal)
Federal tech leader joins startup. Michael Kratsios, who served as U.S. chief technology officer during the Trump administration, has taken on the role of managing director and head of strategy at Scale AI Inc., which offers services and software aimed at helping firms manage data used to train algorithms. (The Wall Street Journal)
Senate bill nears approval. Legislation with bipartisan support, aimed at protecting America’s global lead in developing AI and other technologies, moved closer to final passage last week with Senators voting 68-30 in favor. (The Wall Street Journal)
Naval ships test missile defense. Code-named Formidable Shield, operations by NATO warships off the coast of Scotland and Norway are testing the use of AI and other advanced software tools in detecting, tracking and intercepting ballistic missiles. (Naval News)
Investors bet on breakaway group. Anthropic, an AI watchdog that split from Elon Musk-backed OpenAI, has raised a record $124 million in its first funding round, lifting its valuation to an estimated $845 million. (The Financial Times)
Outsmarting online propaganda. Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Artificial Intelligence Software Architectures and Algorithms Group are building an AI-enabled system designed to detect disinformation in social media networks and identify individuals spreading falsehoods online. (MIT News)
Yum Brands to acquire AI startup. The fast-food giant, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, says it plans to buy Australia-based Dragontail Systems, a software firm that develops AI systems designed to manage food-service processes, from orders through deliveries. (Restaurant Business Magazine)
French firms join forces. Thales and Atos, two of Europe’s largest AI and big-data providers, have announced plans to form a joint venture aimed at developing a unified platform to serve customers across the continent in both the public and private sector. (Defense News)
Intel says chip shortage will last. The semiconductor giant says it could take years for the semiconductor industry to catch up with global demand, a gap that has already hobbled auto makers and consumer electronics firms, among other businesses. (Reuters)
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google is nearing a settlement of an antitrust case in France alleging the company has abused its power in online advertising, and is likely to pay a fine and make operational changes, people familiar with the matter said. (The Wall Street Journal)
The Russia-linked hackers behind the cyberattack on SolarWinds have returned, launching a phishing attack targeting approximately 3,000 email accounts belonging to workers at more than 150 organizations. (The Wall Street Journal)
Amazon.com Inc. has changed its terms of service to allow users to file lawsuits, even as it faces at least three proposed class actions, including one that claims the retail giant's Alexa-powered Echo devices recorded people without permission. (The Wall Street Journal)
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