Job candidates rarely know when hidden artificial intelligence tools are rejecting their resumes or analyzing their video interviews. But New York City residents could soon get more say over the computers making behind-the-scenes decisions about their careers.
A bill passed by the city council in early November would ban employers from using automated hiring tools unless a yearly bias audit can show they won’t discriminate based on an applicant’s race or gender. It would also force makers of those AI tools to disclose more about their opaque workings and give candidates the option of choosing an alternative process — such as a human — to review their application.
Proponents liken it to another pioneering New York City rule that became a national standard-bearer earlier this century — one that required chain restaurants to slap a calorie count on their menu items.
When wireless researchers or telecom companies talk about future sixth-generation (6G) networks, they’re talking mostly about their best guesses and wish lists. There are as yet no widely agreed upon technical standards outlining 6G’s frequencies, signal modulations, and waveforms. And yet the economic and political forces that will define 6G are already in play.
And here’s the biggest wrinkle: Because there are no major U.S. manufacturers of cellular infrastructure equipment, the United States may not have the superpowers it thinks it does in shaping the future course of wireless communications.
In the largest single release of whole genomes ever, the UK Biobank (UKBB) this week unveiled to scientists the entire genomes of 200,000 people who are part of a long-term British health study.
The trove of genomes, each linked to anonymized medical information, will allow biomedical scientists to scour the full 3 billion base pairs of human DNA for insights into the interplay of genes and health that could not be gleaned from partial sequences or scans of genome markers. “It is thrilling to see the release of this long-awaited resource,” says Stephen Glatt, a psychiatric geneticist at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.
I’m excited to see this new preprint by Alessia Cioffi et al. doing an exploratory analysis of invalid DOI-based citations of the @opencitations
corpus and making all the underlying code available for reproducibility. Bravo Clapping hands sign https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.11263 2/2
Quinnipiac University renamed the School of Engineering to the School of Computing and Engineering on Nov. 9, to represent the growing industry of computer science.
“Changing the name is representative of the programs we have in our school, so it’s more representative of what we have in our school and also where the industry’s going in terms of computing,” said Lynn Byers, interim dean of the School of Computing and Engineering.
University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business
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The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business was selected as a key contributor in a $50 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a new effort to enhance diversity in artificial intelligence and machine learning research and initiatives. NIH’s Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) program was created to get more diverse researchers and underrepresented communities involved in the development of AI/ML models to address health disparities and inequities. CHIDS will steer the AI leadership training for healthcare professionals in the Data Science Training Core of AIM-AHEAD.
Rochester Institute of Technology data science professor Travis Desell has a drone data management business that’s really taking off.
The company, called Airtonomy, was awarded the $1 million grand prize at the GENIUS NY international accelerator competition in October. The company was selected from more than 600 applicants during the year-long GENIUS NY program, which is the world’s largest business competition focused on unmanned systems, cross-connected platforms, and other technology-based sectors.
New data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) on U.S. graduate student debt provide fresh evidence of racial disparities in the training of Black Ph.D. students in science—and hint at how they might affect careers.
One set of numbers shows that by the time they finish, Black doctoral recipients in the natural sciences and engineering have racked up nearly twice the graduate school debt of their white, Asian, and Latino peers. Another set shows Black Ph.D.s are less likely than white, Asian, and Latino Ph.D. students to receive two desirable sources of support—a research grant or traineeship. Black Ph.D.s are also more likely to use their own resources to pay for their graduate studies.
The investment firm for one of the world’s biggest computerized trading fortunes is expanding its holdings in machine learning.
Euclidean Capital — Jim Simons’s family office — has invested in at least six companies since the start of 2020 that focus on artificial intelligence, spanning health care, customer services and aviation, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
It was every sports bettor’s dream: Being able to bet on a game after it had already ended.
But the 86 New Jersey gamblers who thought they were beating the system had their bets on a British soccer game voided, and the two betting companies involved got fined.
The mishap was revealed in documents made public earlier this month by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which has fined the Malta-based sports betting technology company Kambi Group and Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive $1,000 apiece.
University of Florida President Kent Fuchs addressed the controversy surrounding the task force created after three professors were blocked from testifying against the state. Fuchs said he feels he’s in good standing with professors who were concerned about the situation they say took their academic freedom of speech away.
University of Michigan, The Michigan Daily student newspaper, M. Dietz
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The problems facing Activision Blizzard and Kotick are simply too much to summarize in one piece, and the damaged groups too broad to accurately represent, but one thing should be clear: The problems exist from top to bottom. Countless publications, employees, shareholders and other companies scream (and petition) for Kotick’s resignation, while his board of directors insists its trust in Kotick remains strong and that the recently introduced zero-tolerance policy on harassment will not apply to him. After days of clamoring, Kotick finally acknowledged the calls to resign but stated he will only do so after attempting to “fix” Activision Blizzard’s problems in a timely manner.
Yet, the University, which stands $4 million richer, has only made a singular comment on the matter: They are keeping the money.
“Acceptance of gifts from any individual does not mean the university agrees with the individual’s opinions or actions,” said University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald. The statement is unsurprising; the University is no stranger to ignoring scandals.
Before arriving at Twitter, Agrawal worked as a researcher at a few different tech companies — AT&T Labs, Microsoft and Yahoo, according to his LinkedIn page — while completing his doctorate in computer science at Stanford University, which he finished in 2012. He also holds an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.
While he wasn’t a household name before today, that’s quickly changing. Agrawal’s own Twitter following exploded after the announcement, jumping from around 24,000 followers earlier in the day, CNBC reported this afternoon, to more than 140,000 at the time of publication.
The Cabinet Office’s Central Digital and Data Office has developed an algorithmic transparency standard for government departments and public sector bodies with the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
The standard will be piloted by several public sector organisations and further developed based on feedback
The move makes the UK one of the first countries in the world to develop a national algorithmic transparency standard, strengthening the UK’s position as a world leader in AI governance
Online December 8, starting at 11 a.m. Eastern. “MIT Technology Review welcomes you to our Innovators Under 35 Festival, where you’ll hear first-hand from our global community of honorees about their journey to tech success.”
“As part of our effort to support and develop AI talent, we’re excited to announce the OpenAI Residency. This new program offers a pathway to a full-time role at OpenAI for researchers and engineers who don’t currently focus on artificial intelligence. The Residency will focus on recruiting from underrepresented groups in technology.” Deadline for applications is January 14, 2022.
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The eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good program is now accepting applications for student fellows and project leads for the 2021 summer session. Fellows will work with academic researchers, data scientists and public stakeholder groups on data-intensive research projects that will leverage data science approaches to address societal challenges in areas such as public policy, environmental impacts and more. Student applications due 2/15 – learn more and apply here. DSSG is also soliciting project proposals from academic researchers, public agencies, nonprofit entities and industry who are looking for an opportunity to work closely with data science professionals and students on focused, collaborative projects to make better use of their data. Proposal submissions are due 2/22.
The United States Research Software Engineer Association
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In this bi-monthly newsletter, we share recent, current, and planned activities of the US-RSE Association, and related news that we think is of interest to US-RSE members. Newsletters are also available on our website alongside the growing resources and information on the US-RSE Association. To receive our newsletter, join US-RSE here.
Just upload your notebook, get the link, and share it however you want. Notebook links are permalinks – once uploaded, a notebook can not be changed. You can only upload a new notebook and get a new link.
