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Google will roll out ambiguously gendered emoji to Android Q
The variety of emoji has skyrocketed from 176 since the initial release of the symbols back in 1999, to more than 3,000 today. During that time they've steadily become more inclusive, expanding to feature same sex couples, redheads, female scientists and people of every skin tone. Now, Google is adding 53 gender ambiguous characters, according to Fast Company.
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.
Study: Women are abused every 30 seconds on Twitter
Earlier this year Amnesty International released a report discussing what many of Twitter's female users already know: the social network is not always a great place to be if you're a woman. Now, a new study reveals the hard statistics on just how toxic the situation is. According to the report by Amnesty International and global AI software company Element AI, female journalists and politicians were abused every 30 seconds on Twitter in 2017.
Google is working to remove gender bias in its translations
Google has taken a step towards reducing gender bias on the Google Translate website. In the past, when a word could be translated in either a masculine or feminine form, only one translation was provided, and because Google Translate learns from existing examples of translations, biases in those samples can be transferred to Translate's responses. That could sometimes result in words like "strong" or "doctor" leading to masculine translations while words like "nurse" or "beautiful" could produce feminine translations. Now, however, for certain languages, Translate will offer both a masculine and a feminine translation when either might be appropriate.
Google pulls gender pronouns from Gmail Smart Compose to reduce bias
Gmail's Smart Compose can save you valuable time when you're firing off a quick message, but don't expect it to refer to people as "him" or "her" -- Google is playing it safe on that front. Product leaders have revealed to Reuters that Google removed gender pronouns from Smart Compose's phrase suggestions after realizing that the AI-guided feature could be biased. When a scientist talked about meeting an investor in January, for example, Gmail offered the follow-up "do you want to meet him" -- not considering the possibility that the investor could be a woman.
ACLU: Facebook allowed gender-discriminating job ads
The ACLU has filed a complaint against Facebook with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for what it says is unlawful gender-based targeting of job ads. The organization filed the charges on behalf of three women, the Communications Workers of America and the women the CWA represents. Its charges allege that Facebook allowed employers to target their job ads toward men and it names 10 companies that it says took advantage of that feature.
AI reveals even more about Hollywood gender bias
Here's what we know about how women are portrayed in Hollywood cinema: Male characters speak far more often than female ones. Men talk more about achievement, whereas women tend towards positive and emotional language. The majority of best picture winners at the Oscars since 1929 fail to pass the Bechdel test. AI analysis of characters' personalities from StoryFit tells us more: Women are portrayed as very agreeable -- compassionate but not strong-willed. They're low on neuroticism (making them cool-headed but not expressive) and openness (guarded and not a rule-breaker). And their personalities onscreen demonstrate less range than men.
Grindr adds more transgender-inclusive features
Grindr is rolling out new features to be more inclusive of transgender members. User profiles now include a new "identity" feature that includes options for listing gender and preferred pronouns. Members can pick from a list of common gender identities such as "trans man", "woman", "cis man", "non-binary, "non-conforming" and "queer", or specify their own identity if it doesn't appear on the list. Pronouns such as "he/him/his", "she/her/hers" and "they/them/theirs" can also be chosen, or specific pronouns written if not listed. Writing throughout the website has also been updated to include gender neutral terms.
The evolution of women in video games continues at E3 2017
Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian tries to make it clear that her yearly, gender-focused analysis of the video games announced at E3 isn't founded in malice -- it's a mathematical reality. Even in 2017, video games overwhelmingly feature male protagonists rather than female leads. According to Feminist Frequency, 109 games debuted at E3 this year, and just eight of them (or 7 percent) star female characters, compared with 29 titles (26 percent) featuring male protagonists. Fifty-two percent of newly announced games utilize a system that lets players select specific characters or genders. On their own, these statistics aren't bad or good; they're simply facts. "We're not trying to be bummers," Sarkeesian said on the Engadget stage at E3. "But it's like, let's look at the actual numbers so we can actually improve for real."
Google Lens resurfaces questions about AI and human identity
Today at the company's annual developer conference, Google CEO Sundar Pichai uttered a phrase that will no doubt be repeated in corporate boardrooms across the world for the foreseeable future: "AI first." It wasn't the first we've heard of the formerly "mobile-first" company's focus on artificial intelligence, but Google I/O 2017 marked the first time we saw many of the tools that will back up that new catchphrase.
The Female Governors' Summit aims to get more girls into tech
Jobs in computer science and engineering aren't just highly lucrative -- they're also crucial for national innovation. With that in mind, Oklahoma's Governor Mary Fallin, Rhode Island's Governor Gina Raimondo and Iowa's Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds are set to meet with Girls Who Code, Facebook and the consulting firm Deloitte today at the first Female Governor's Summit. Their big plan? To try and figure out how to get more girls excited about -- and jumping into -- computer science.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 11: Everybody Hurts
Managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Mona Lalwani join host Terrence O'Brien to talk Macbook rumors, Amazon ISP ambitions and Julian Assange. Then they'll talk about all the work that went into Engadget's five part series covering the world's first cyborg games, Superhumans and look at VR's ability generate empathy.
Silicon Valley bro sues Yahoo for reverse discrimination
This week hasn't been particularly kind to beleaguered internet company Yahoo. CEO Marissa Mayer, former chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt and editor-in-chief of Yahoo News Megan Liberman have been accused of engaging in gender discrimination. According to The Mercury News, a lawsuit has been filed by former editorial director Scott Ard on the grounds that "Mayer encouraged and fostered the use of (an employee performance-rating system) to accommodate management's subjective biases and personal opinions, to the detriment of Yahoo's male employees."
Unicode's next emoji update focuses on gender and jobs
The latest proposed updates to Unicode's emoji rules add a handful of dual-gendered jobs and give basically every human emoji both male and female versions, Emojipedia reports. Those two ladies dancing in bunny ears? Now there's a male version. The policeman's face? Emoji 4.0 adds a female option. The beta of iOS 10 already showcases these changes, despite the fact that Emoji 4.0 is still in draft form for two more months, during which period the public can provide feedback to Unicode.
Apple fixes its gender pay gap, makes small diversity gains
Gender and ethnic diversity remain one of the tech industry's biggest problems, but this year more big companies are actually shaping up. In its latest Diversity Report, Apple announced today that it's fully erased the gender pay gap among men and women in the U.S. "for similar roles and performance." While a noteworthy accomplishment, Apple's previous wage difference wasn't very large, with women making 99.6 cents for every dollar a man makes, Business Insider reports. Both Microsoft and Facebook also announced earlier this year that they've erased any pay differences among genders.
Google's emoji for working women get thumbs up from Unicode
Back in May, Google proposed a set of emoji that would offer options that depict careers of professional women with a range of races and ethnicities. Today, the company announced that Unicode, the organization that (among other things) handles the decisions for all things emjoi, agreed to 11 new professional options that showcase a range of jobs for both men and women. And yes, they'll be available in all of the existing skin tones. This means that the group adds more than 100 new emoji to the existing Unicode library.
'Sims 4' removes gender barriers in Create a Sim
The Sims franchise is all about customization. The city-building games feature wild objects, buildings, people and professions that can be combined in all manner of ridiculous ways, from blue-skinned rocket scientists with a deep love of cacti to museum curators who enjoy a good naked walk around fine art displays. Personal choice is the joy of the game. That's one reason it was strange to have customization options in The Sims 4 that were exclusive to either gender. Female characters couldn't use the clothes, hairstyles, physiques and voice options that were designated for men, and vice versa. That is, until today.
Apple hired more women, but still has a huge gender gap
Apple's largely white guy workforce isn't going to change overnight, but the company made strides this year, according to its latest diversity report. After promising changes in June, Tim Cook said "we're working hard to expand our recruiting efforts, so we continue to hire talented people from groups that are currently underrepresented in the industry." Globally, it hired 11,000 women over the past year compared to around 6,500 this year before. The company also took on 50 percent more black employees and 66 percent more Hispanics in the US over the same period. That's positive, but Apple is still 69 percent male and 55 percent white, just a percent better than last year.
Reddit's chief engineer quits after losing faith in site's direction
Reddit's VP of Engineering Bethanye Blount has quit after just two months on the job, telling Re/Code that she lost confidence in its new direction. "There are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community -- in comments to mods, quotes from board members -- and they're going have some pretty big challenges in meeting (them)," she said. She didn't feel she could deliver on those promises, which include new subreddit mod tools and a content policy aimed at reducing harassment. Blount is the third female employee to leave Reddit in less than two weeks following the departure of CEO Ellen Pao and AMA coordinator Victoria Taylor. The site is now in the hands of former CEO and Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman.
Why video game bodies look nothing like real people
Have you wondered why video game characters bear precious little resemblance to the people you see on the street? PBS has. Its latest Game/Show episode dives into the reasons why bodies in games are so exaggerated, and finds that it's largely about the psychological associations you make with geometry. Circular shapes tend to communicate liveliness, innocence and stereotypical femininity, while squares and triangles often suggest balance, hardness and (historically masculine) strength. They're meant as a shorthand that conveys what a character is about before you even start playing, such as a tough-as-nails Gears of War soldier or a friendly mascot like Mario.
