Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism

Book by Safiya Umoja Noble on the racial and gender biases of search engines and how that negatively impacts Black women in particular. The dominant position of these tools spread and reinforce these biases.

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You can now practice firing someone in virtual reality

Start-up Talespin, which sells VR learning software, invites human resources managers to practice firing employees with Barry. Barry isn't a human--he's a virtual senior you can fire again and again despite his virtual tears.

Note from the archivist: Talespin no longer showcases Barry on its website. The company hasn't changed the focus of its business but now markets it as "learning in the metaverse".

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Microsoft Files Patent to Create Chatbots That Imitate Dead People

Microsoft filed a patent to create chatbots able to imitate dead people. All you have to do is feed the AI voice recordings, images and social media interactions.

Note from the archivist: Toward the end of Flat Eye's development, Amazon announced a similar feature for devices with Alexa.

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Une « Kabin » pour télétravailler au Monop’

Start-up Kabin set up a teleworking booth in a Parisian supermarket. Using a dedicated app you can rent the "Kabin" for five euros an hour. It can accommodate up to four people and comes with WiFi and sound insulation.

Note from the archivist: A few reactions from the Monkey Moon forum: "It seriously seems like by the time Flat Eye is out, all of the dystopian ideas from the game will have become reality." "We're geniuses, that's the only explanation. It looks like the cloning booth to me." "We can make it a serious game sponsored by the government and make a ton of money: adapt to the current job market with Flat Eye."

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Spotify has a patent for personality tracking technology – and it’s pretty creepy stuff

Analysis of a patent filed by Spotify designed to determine a listener's personality traits from what they listen to and the context in which they listen to specific tracks. Spotify then aims to develop a listener profile from the traits observed.

Note from the archivist: From the Monkey Moon forum: "It would be 'fun' if the AI assigned a personality type to players at the end of the game."

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Daniel Kahneman: ‘Clearly AI is going to win. How people are going to adjust is a fascinating problem’ / 'I’ll say it again. AI IS people. Just people. All the way down. For the foreseeable future. So if you frame it as a war that AI wins, you’re saying that some people will win that war against other people. Don’t pretend the machines are fighting anyone.'

Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, whose research focuses on the decision-making process, talks about people's lack of realiability and predictability. He expects that artificial intelligences will make decisions in many sectors in the future, behaving more fairly than than humans.

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A rogue killer drone 'hunted down' a human target without being instructed to, UN report says

A United Nations report indicates that in Libya in March 2020, an autonomous military drone attacked a retreating adversary without human instruction to do so. Analysts recommend stricter regulation.

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Talking to Animals: Using AI to Decode the Language of Whales

A presentation of the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) and its volunteers who are fascinated by whales' intelligence, language and dialects. CETI hopes to accumlate enough data to have it analyzed by programs to try to understand whalespeak.

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Bacteria-sized robots take on microplastics and win by breaking them down

Scientists have developed microbots to eliminate potentially dangerous and difficult-to-filter microplastics. This first attempt has been deemed successful, though it takes a considerable amount of time.

Note from the archivist: But how do you filter out the microbots?

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A Bee Cloned Itself Millions of Times Over the Last 30 Years

A South African bee has "recloned itself" (it has really just laid eggs that are genetic copies of itself again and again) several million times over the past few decades. While scientists find this remarkable, they deplore the impact on colonies: bees that clone themselves just keep laying instead of working, slowly destroying the colony. The bees then migrate to a new colony, start laying again, and undermine the queen. One scientist referred to it as "transmissible social cancer".

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