Awesome, not awesome.
#Awesome
“… For nearly 70 years, the process of interviewing, allocating, and accepting refugees has gone largely unchanged… If it works, [a new algorithm called] Annie could change that dynamic… The system examines a series of variables — physical ailments, age, levels of education and languages spoken, for example — related to each refugee case. In other words, the software uses previous outcomes and current constraints to recommend where a refugee is most likely to succeed…This is a drastic departure from how refugees are typically resettled. Each week, HIAS and the eight other agencies that allocate refugees in the United States make their decisions based largely on local capacity, with limited emphasis on individual characteristics or needs.” — Krishnadev Calamur, Writer Learn More from The Atlantic >
#Not Awesome
“When the report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III came out last week, offering the most authoritative account yet of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, YouTube recommended one video source hundreds of thousands of times to viewers seeking information, a watchdog says: RT, the global media operation funded by the Russian government… the numbers of recommendations suggest that Russians have grown adept at manipulating YouTube’s algorithm…” — Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg, Reporters Learn More from The Washington Post >
What we’re reading.
1/ Chinese police collect massive amounts of data on how, where, and with whom ethnic groups spend their time — eventually they can feed these data into algorithms that allow them to “predict, the everyday life and resistance of its population, and, ultimately, to engineer and control reality.” Learn More from Humans Rights Watch >
2/ A group of researchers thinks we can use many of the same scientific methods that help us study organic “black boxes” (humans’ brains) to better understand inorganic black boxes (AI systems). Learn More from MIT Technology Review >
3/ None of us may have the choice to be anonymous in the future once governments (and massive companies) pair AI-enabled facial recognition software with the data streams and location capabilities of 5G networks. Learn More from The New Yorker >
4/ People clutch to the idea that AI won’t replace time old traditions (like car ownership in the US), but we’re already starting to see them fade away. Learn More from Vox >
5/ As AI tech progresses, humans may better off erring on the side of humility than with aspirations for control. Learn More from WIRED >
6/ An algorithm and a team of humans work together to expunge thousands criminal records related to cannabis possession. Learn More from BBC News >
7/ An AI researcher training algorithms to generate puns may be laying the foundation for future artificial intelligence systems to “write stories about things humans wouldn’t think to write about.” Learn More from WIRED >
Links from the community.
“AI Evolved These Creepy Images to Please a Monkey’s Brain” submitted by Avi Eisenberger (@aeisenberger). Learn More from The Atlantic >
“3 Machine Learning Books That Helped Me Level Up As A Data Scientist” submitted by Samiur Rahman (@samiur1204). Learn More from Data Stuff >
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AI and Mass Surveillance was originally published in Machine Learnings on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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