Monitoring 200 million kids to improve AI algorithms

Awesome, not awesome.

#Awesome
“AI is also helping Wrege unravel some other long-held elephant mysteries — like whether they have a language and how sophisticated it might be…Wrege envisions a time when it will be able to distinguish the sounds of distress or danger in the calls recorded in the forest [using a neural network]. Eventually maybe they’d be able to send out authorities in real time as soon as they hear from the elephants themselves. That may be some years away, but if you ask Wrege whether he thinks AI will save the elephant, he is unequivocal.” — Dina Temple-Raston, Special Correspondent Learn More from NPR >

#Not Awesome
“An algorithm that many US health providers use to predict which patients will most need extra medical care privileged white patients over black patients, according to researchers at UC Berkeley, whose study was published in Science. Effectively, it bumped whites up the queue for special treatments for complex conditions like kidney problems or diabetes…The study is the latest to show the pitfalls of allocating important resources according to the recommendation of algorithms. These kinds of challenges are playing out not just in health care, but also in hiring, credit scoring, insurance, and criminal justice.” — Charlotte Jee, Reporter Learn More from MIT Technology Review >

What we’re reading.

1/ China monitors 200 million school age kids with headbands, wristbands, and facial recognition software to quantify learning progress and school — amassing a huge database that will be used to train ML algorithms. Learn More from The Wall Street Journal >

2/ In 2015, undercover cops bought drugs from a dealer they couldn’t identify. In 2016, they use facial recognition software to sentence a man to 8 years in prison. A legal battle is now taking place to determine how this software should and should not be used. Learn More from MuckRock >

3/ A company called HireVue uses facial and voice recognition software during interviews to determine a candidate’s “employability” score. Some AI researchers are calling BS. Learn More from The Washington Post >

4/ Rather than censor hate speech, the best way to counteract it online may be to use AI to automate empathetic responses. Learn More from Axios >

5/ Doctors will one day be able to use AI systems to give patients more targeted cancer treatments — identifying patients whose tumors have similar characteristics. Learn More from The New York Times >

6/ Artificial Intelligence researchers study how children living in hunter-gatherer communities in Congo learn to find new ways to improve their AI researchers. Learn More from Scientific American >

7/ McDonald’s is using artificial intelligence to recommend food choices to customers at drive-in windows. Health experts worry they will drive up “unhealthy eating and obesity rates.” Learn More from The New York Times >

Links from the community.

“AI projects fail — here’s why” submitted by Samiur Rahman (@samiur1204). Learn More from Neoteric >

“AI and Health Care Are Made for Each Other” submitted by Avi Eisenberger (@aeisenberger). Learn More from TIME >

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Monitoring 200 million kids to improve AI algorithms was originally published in Machine Learnings on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.