Tag Archives: WorldNews

Google reportedly targeted homeless people with ‘dark skin’ to improve AI

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Subcontracted workers were instructed to persuade subjects to agree to face scans, mischaracterizing them as a ‘selfie game’ or ‘survey’

Facial recognition technology’s failures when it comes to accurately identifying people of color have been well documented and much criticized. But an attempt by Google to improve its facial recognition algorithms by collecting data from people with dark skin is raising further concerns about the ethics of the data harvesting.

Google has been using subcontracted workers to collect face scans from members of the public in exchange for $5 gift cards, according to a report from the New York Daily News. The face scan collection project had been previously reported, but anonymous sources described unethical and deceptive practices to the Daily News.

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Strong, smart teen girls have had enough. No wonder men like Trump are rattled | Sasha Brown-Worsham

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Greta Thunberg and her cohorts are ready to change the world – and that scares a certain kind of man

The president of the United States openly mocked a teenage girl. After dismissing the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg in person and earning her ire, he tweeted to his 65 million followers: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

Related: Greta Thunberg’s 495-word UN speech points us to a future of hope – or despair | Richard Flanagan

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Donald Trump has put whistleblower in danger, lawyers say

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Lawyers acting for the whistleblower at the centre of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s attempts to solicit foreign help for his re-election campaign have warned that their client’s personal safety is in danger, partly as a result of the president’s remarks.

Related: Rudy Giuliani: Biden aides say TV news must stop booking Trump lawyer

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The House must flex its constitutional muscles to get to Trump | Laurence H Tribe

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Only the procedures enshrined in the impeachment process have the power to cut through the president’s smokescreens

There is now powerful evidence that Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses by using his foreign policy and military powers to solicit (and all but coerce) Ukraine’s president to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, has confirmed that the House will move swiftly to investigate this threat to democracy, national security, and the separation of powers.

Related: Trump can do more damage than Nixon. His impeachment is imperative | Robert Reich

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Swedish navy returns to vast underground HQ amid Russia fears

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Cavernous docks can shelter warships, with miles of tunnels, offices, and a hospital

Sweden’s navy HQ is returning to a vast underground cold war fortress designed to withstand a nuclear attack, in what has been seen as a defensive move against a resurgent Russia.

After a 25-year absence, the navy will once again be commanded from beneath billions of tonnes of granite as the country strives to build up its defences in response to the perceived threat from Moscow.

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Groping claims against Boris Johnson shrugged off by allies

Ladies beware!

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Prime minister denies allegations that he squeezed the leg of Charlotte Edwardes

Boris Johnson’s senior ministers have attempted to minimise the allegations that he groped a journalist’s inner thigh at a dinner in 1999 as the party tried to get its conference back on to the subject of Brexit and domestic policy.

Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary and former minister for women, gave her wholehearted backing to the prime minister, saying: there is “no truth in these allegations”, while housing minister, Esther McVey, suggested journalists needed to go back and check it really happened.

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