Cyborg patented?
Forbes reports that Microsoft has obtained a patent for a “conversational chatbot of a specific person” created from images, recordings, participation in social networks, emails, letters, etc., coupled with the possible generation of a 2D or 3D model of the person.
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Racial bias in algorithms
From the UK Open Data Institute’s Week in Data newsletter
This week, Twitter apologised for racial bias within its image-cropping algorithm. The feature is designed to automatically crop images to highlight focal points – including faces. But, Twitter users discovered that, in practice, white faces were focused on, and black faces were cropped out. And, Twitter isn’t the only platform struggling with its algorithm – YouTube has also announced plans to bring back higher levels of human moderation for removing content, after its AI-centred approach resulted in over-censorship, with videos being removed at far higher rates than with human moderators.
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Gap between rich and poor university students widest for 12 years
Via The Canary.
The gap between poor students and their more affluent peers attending university has widened to its largest point for 12 years, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Better-off pupils are significantly more likely to go to university than their more disadvantaged peers. And the gap between the two groups – 18.8 percentage points – is the widest it’s been since 2006/07.
The latest statistics show that 26.3% of pupils eligible for FSMs went on to university in 2018/19, compared with 45.1% of those who did not receive free meals. Only 12.7% of white British males who were eligible for FSMs went to university by the age of 19. The progression rate has fallen slightly for the first time since 2011/12, according to the DfE analysis.
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Quality Training
From Raconteur. A recent report by global learning consultancy Kineo examined the learning intentions of 8,000 employees across 13 different industries. It found a huge gap between the quality of training offered and the needs of employees. Of those surveyed, 85 per cent said they , with only 16 per cent of employees finding the learning programmes offered by their employers effective.
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Nice quotation to re-use 🙂
I was musing on this on the Connectivism and Connected Knowledge (CCK08) Moodle forums not long ago. I would like to see a technology based support mechanism for representing the explicit trust academics have in each other, which would, I think, provide sufficient support for such a system to work.
Of course, I would rather see tertiary education freed from the business ties – perhaps separated into vocational and academic specialisations (now, where did I see that before…) and adequately funded so that the education is free at point of service, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
I like this idea. Knowledge being passed on from people to people; ideas “Fevering” into action; know-how being developed through discussion-practice… the natural pragmatic steps of those who care [to learn…who show interest.]
It’s a free(willing) journey into knowing for those who are open to learn with others (=share questions and attempt answers – “new ways out”; provide insights and add novelty to the groups’ thinking/perspectives; listen to and being listened to; engage in joint effort, collaborate and cooperate; support and help activate ideas — > motivating discussions leading to heartfelt actions. All of this empowers learning and improves [changes…?] our world (and the world around us) … all of this becomes meaningful…
The more we get involved the more relevant it becomes (to us). Because we are a reflection of the world we (choose to) belong to, and only that one really matters [to us]…only that impacts on what we do and on what we are…
And I think there’s a hint here ( in this post) to go back to that way of learning – the conversational way…with people mentoring… teaching…learning with… each other; being part of common reflections…actions.
It reminds me of winter evening conversations around the fireplace. The warmth of the voices; the “fire” in the ideas which keeps the discussion crackling …into something deeper…