LINKS WE LIKE #39 Imagine being able to detect crime hotspots in your city, use facial recognition software to match camera footage from a robbery with a database of images, or even predict the likelihood of a crime (including time and location) before it occurs. While this might sound like science fiction (Minority Report, which came out 20 years ago, … Read More
LWL #38 Algorithmic Justice: The Next Civil Rights Frontier?
LINKS WE LIKE #38 “The first duty of society is justice” – Wendell Phillips When you think of “civil rights”, many things probably come to mind. Generations-long struggles for racial or gender equality and equal protection for other disenfranchised communities are most commonly associated with the phrase. What you do not think of, most likely, are algorithms. In fact, unless … Read More
LWL #37 The Future of Health? How Big Data and AI are Reshaping Modern Medicine
LINKS WE LIKE #37 Health care is one sector for which the massive amount of data produced daily holds great promise. Data from electronic health records, medical devices and health-related apps (and other sources) has grown so large that they exceed human capabilities for analysis. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes into play. Through various modeling techniques, AI can … Read More
LWL #34 The Creative Arts and AI: The Ultimate Collaboration (or Competition?)
LINKS WE LIKE #34 Repetitive, structured, and monotonous are adjectives often associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Normally these tools are not linked with being creative, let alone with the creation of art. However, in recent years this perception has changed and, increasingly, artists are breaking barriers and using AI and teaching ML models to create art … Read More
LWL #33 Agriculture and AI: From the Root of Civilization to its Promising Future
We now find ourselves on the verge of the next “agricultural revolution”, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and agriculture coming together. In this edition of Links We Like, we explore the effects that this linkage will create.
LWL #32 Facebook, the Promise and the Peril
LINKS WE LIKE #32 When speaking about the purpose of his company, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted as saying, “By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.” This leads to a very important question, is Facebook itself living up to this standard? According to a recent whistleblower, the answer is no. Considering Facebook’s … Read More
LWL #31 Online Harassment and AI Content Moderation: Countering Threats to Freedom of Expression
LINKS WE LIKE #31 The emergence and popularity of new social networks has opened space for a multitude of virtual interactions between people from diverse backgrounds. Consequently, the internet allows anyone to become a “communicator”, with access to a wide audience to share their views. With the virtual environment becoming one of the most important centers of public debate, innovative … Read More
LWL #30 AI and ML for People with Disabilities: Innovations and Challenges
LINKS WE LIKE #30 One of the biggest opportunities that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies have opened up is the chance to design solutions that can positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, about 15% of the global population (1.2 Billion people) has some type of disability. In the fight towards inclusivity, … Read More
LWL #29 Blockchain and its Application to Collective Challenges
LINKS WE LIKE #29 Although it has most commonly been associated with cryptocurrency, since its release in 2008 with the white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”, the blockchain system has been always praised for its potential to transform various sectors. Namely, blockchain can be used to address environmental challenges, enable e-voting, expand digital mobile ticketing, facilitate health care … Read More
LWL #28 Can Data and AI be Used as a Weapon to Fight Corruption?
LINKS WE LIKE #28 Corruption is a major challenge for governments, companies, and societies all around the world. It is an expensive criminal and cultural practice. According to the UN, an estimated one trillion dollars are paid in bribes annually, while another 2.6 trillion are lost in corrupt activities globally. However, the cost of corruption is not merely economic; it damages … Read More
LWL #27 The Role of Big Data and AI in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
LINKS WE LIKE #27 One of the biggest promises of the “data age” is the creation of tools that will allow us to keep track and evaluate the performance of different projects and policies more efficiently. The main appeal of using Big data and AI for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) lies within the opportunity of having access to high-quality, timely, and accessible … Read More
LWL #26 Open Source Licenses and Accessibility for AI Models
LINKS WE LIKE #26 The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models has been accompanied by growing efforts to make these technologies accessible and available to non-experts through what is referred to as open-source licenses. As a result of this “democratization of AI” more models and training data are becoming public, a process that has given rise to its new possibilities … Read More
LWL #25 Discrimination in Data and Artificial Intelligence
LINKS WE LIKE #25 In commemoration of the international Zero Discrimination Day, and following the call to action from the president of the United Nations General Assembly Volkan Bozkir to “call out discrimination when we see it and advocate for a more just world”, this edition of LWL looks at issues of discrimination in artificial intelligence (AI) and data. As … Read More