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Facebook reportedly investigated over 'systemic' racism in hiring
Facebook is said to be under investigation for allegedly 'systemic' racism in its hiring and job promotions.
EA bans a FIFA player for life after racist abuse of ex-footballer Ian Wright
The teen sent the messages to Wright after losing an Ultimate Team game.
Apple's parental controls prevent kids from searching for 'Asian' things
“Asian food” is off-limits, as are terms like “Asian fusion,” “Asian diaspora,” “Asian communities”, “Asian countries” and “Asian politics”, “Asian cultures” and “Asian hairstyles”.
Disney+ restricts kids from watching content with racist stereotypes
Disney is taking an additional step to provide children the proper context when seeing titles like 'The Jungle Book' and 'Peter Pan.'
What’s the tech industry's place in a racial justice movement?
But what's the trillion dollar tech company supposed to do? When the protests first started, Sherrell Dorsey, founder of The Plug, which reports on the Black tech economy, started tracking every tech company’s statement addressing race with her team.
DeepMind and Oxford University researchers on how to 'decolonize' AI
In a moment where society is collectively reckoning with just how deep the roots of racism reach, a new paper from researchers at DeepMind — the AI lab and sister company to Google — and the University of Oxford presents a vision to “decolonize” artificial intelligence. The aim is to keep society’s ugly prejudices from being reproduced and amplified by today’s powerful machine learning systems. The paper, published this month in the journal Philosophy & Technology, has at heart the idea that you have to understand historical context to understand why technology can be biased.
YouTube will 'amplify' Black creators with a $100 million fund
YouTube is creating a $100 million multi-year fund dedicated to Black creators, artists and their stories.
Formula E racer disqualified for using an esports ringer in a virtual race
Formula E Audi driver Daniel Abt has been disqualified from an esports race and fined €10,000 for using a ringer in his place, according to Reuters.
The making of a diverse game studio
The original name for Manveer Heir's new game studio that focused on stories of people of color was Big Mouth Games. The former BioWare and Raven Software designer embraces his loudness. Now, he's putting his money where his considerable mouth is.
Elon Musk says the Tesla Model S just set a new track speed record
The Model S has set a new record for the fastest four-door car at California's Laguna Seca racetrack, according to Elon Musk. The Tesla boss didn't give any more details in his brief tweet announcing the news, but did say that a video of the lap will be released tomorrow. Update (9/11, 10:17PM ET): As promised, the video is here.
Two-thirds of online gamers in the US experience 'severe' harassment
It's no secret that online gaming can harbor toxic and abusive behavior. But a new survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says as many as many as two-thirds of US online gamers have experienced "severe" harassment. More than half of the respondents said they've been targeted based on their race, religion, ability, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity. Nearly 30 percent claim they've been doxxed in an online game, and nearly a quarter of respondents say they've been exposed to white supremacist ideology.
Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a 'diversity disaster'
The lack of diversity within artificial intelligence is pushing the field to a dangerous "tipping point," according to new research from the AI Now Institute. It says that due to an overwhelming proportion of white males in the field, the technology is at risk of perpetuating historical biases and power imbalances.
The 'Proving Grounds’ track gives every car a chance to be a winner
The Nurburgring track is the de facto bar for testing cars. Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Ferraris all fly around the asphalt altar and post impressive numbers. It's built for insanely fast cars, and your average sedan, minivan, truck, or SUV isn't invited.
Volkswagen is building an electric supercar to tackle Pikes Peak
Last month, Volkswagen laid out a roadmap for its EV rollout, promising 300 zero-emissions vehicles by 2030. While it's certainly good PR to move the company beyond its lingering diesel scandal, it also follows other automakers that recently committed to electric vehicle fleets. But to really seal the deal, VW has a new stunt in the works: It's creating an all-electric sportscar for next June's Pikes Peak high-altitude race in Colorado.
Facebook will hand-review ads targeting politics and race
When Facebook said it was hiring 1,000 more people to manually review ads, it wasn't necessarily clear to everyone what that entailed -- just what was the focus, and would it affect upstanding advertisers? While the company touched on what whats happening before, there's no ambiguity now. According to Axios, Facebook is telling advertisers that it now requires manual review for ads targeting people based on "politics, religion, ethnicity or social issues." In other words, Facebook is determined to avoid any attempt to use ads to stoke social tensions, even if that means slowing down its ad system. The social network warns marketers that they're "likely to experience a delay" to the start of their ad campaigns, at least until Facebook finds a way to streamline the process.
Changing your race in virtual reality
John Howard Griffin was perhaps the best-known race swapper of the 20th century. In 1959, the white Texan writer went undercover as a black man in the Jim Crow South. Griffin spent days under a tanning lamp, took drugs for the skin pigmentation disorder vitiligo and shaved his head but otherwise spoke and acted exactly as he had as a white man. In assignments for the African-American magazine Sepia and later his acclaimed book Black Like Me, Griffin aimed to convey to white Americans what it was like to be the other. This was before Rachel Dolezal, Iggy Azalea or any of the Kardashians; blackness for him was not a cultural adornment but a target on his back.
FaceApp changes your race with its latest selfie-editing filters (update)
FaceApp uses neural networks for realistic-looking changes to your selfie photos. Originally, it had filters to add smiles, change your age, change gender or "beautify" your face. Unlike Snapchat's overlays, FaceApp uses deep learning technologies to change the photo itself. Now, a new update adds race to the mix, with an update to enable users to make themselves look Asian, Black, Caucasian or Indian.
Fox broadcasts Formula E's historic NYC races starting July 15th
Formula E is about to make history by bringing racing back to New York City, and you'll have plenty of chances to tune in... though it's not always live. Fox Sports (the league's official broadcaster) has detailed a coverage schedule for the two Brooklyn races on the weekend, including the pre-race build-up. Everything starts on July 15th at 6:30PM, when FS2 and SDD will rebroadcast the round 9 race's qualifying results. You'll see the race itself an hour later, at 7:30PM. Round 10 qualifying will air 11AM on July 16th. The real fireworks start at 12:30PM on the 16th -- that's when the pre-race (and half an hour later, the race itself) broadcasts live on TV. Both races will livestream online through Fox Sports Go, though you'll need a TV subscription to take advantage of internet viewing.
Acura is livestreaming an augmented reality race on Facebook
Honda's luxury car brand Acura is set to livestream an augmented reality race featuring its 2018 TLX A-Spec sedan. The event will see four drivers hit a real track while wearing AR helmets that will create new virtual environments for each lap. Aside from spectating, viewers will also be able to interact with the racers on Facebook Live.
Report details Facebook’s bizarre logic on hate speech
Facebook has more than two billion users, and ensuring that the discussion between them remains civil is an understandably difficult task. But, if evidence found by ProPublica is true, the company's own policy on hate speech may cause unreasonable disparities in how comments are moderated. The report claims that Facebook has built a comment moderation policy that protects "white men from hate speech, but not black children."
