Twitter’s new ‘Blue’ service is yet another tax on minorities

Jun03
by on June 3, 2021 at 8:49 pm
Posted In: artificial intelligence, Opinion


Twitter today launched its new Blue subscription service in Canada and Australia. As Neural’s Thomas Maucaulay reported earlier, users in the initial subscriber areas can now pay a small monthly fee to get a VIP social media experience. The big sell here is that Blue subscribers will get access to an “undo tweet” ability, bookmark folders, “reader” mode, and “dedicated subscription customer support.” None of that makes any sense. Wasn’t the algorithm supposed to solve the customer support crisis? If Twitter’s having such a problem serving people in a timely manner, why on Earth would anyone pay extra for poor…

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Studies show tech is still dangerous, unwelcoming for LGBTQ employees

Jun02
by on June 2, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Posted In: Insights, Pride


It’s Pride month, and that means it’s time for us to see how things are going for LGBTQ people in tech. If you’re in a hurry, here’s a helpful infographic that sums things up: That might seem a bit hyperbolic, but the good news is that it actually shows a little progress. The flames were a tiny bit higher last year. But we’ve got more to back up claim that tech is a dumpster fire for queer people than just images and anecdotes. Despite the fact that more people in the US identify as LGBT than ever before, we’re not…

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This AI robot mimics human expressions to build trust with users

Jun01
by on June 1, 2021 at 5:47 pm
Posted In: Insider


Scientists at Columbia University have developed a robot that mimics the facial expressions of humans to gain their trust. Named Eva, the droid uses deep learning to analyze human facial gestures captured by a camera. Cables and motors then pull on different points of the robot’s soft skin to mimic the expressions of nearby people in real-time. The effect is pretty creepy, but the researchers say that giving androids this ability can facilitate more natural and engaging human-robot interactions. Eva produces different expressions by utilizing one or more of six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. Per the study paper: For example, while joy…

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