Cyborg patented?
Forbes reports that Microsoft has obtained a patent for a âconversational chatbot of a specific personâ 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 â including faces. But, Twitter users discovered that, in practice, white faces were focused on, and black faces were cropped out. And, Twitter isnât the only platform struggling with its algorithm â 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 â 18.8 percentage points â is the widest itâs 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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All in all a great event nobody should miss! But after mentioning all the white spots I recognized there is also a need for listeners on the program. Students for sure will work hard on tasks relating to the planets issues. There will be a variety of direct activity possibilities into the program – aiming to give the students back the loan of their hard work – Never forgetting, what is the biggest present? The feeling of being recognized and throughout valued.
So nice of the Pontydysgu community to be supportive of the Earthbridges community’s Earthcast09 project, Graham! Much appreciated. Your support in getting the word out regarding our project along, is a bonus, and if we could somehow get the Sounds of the Bazaar to participate and contribute to the event in some way, then that would be the icing on the cake!
A few other ways for people to get in touch with us if they are thinking about participating
-send us an email at earthbridges [at] gmail [dot] com
-search twitter with the term, earthcast09
If you are interested in listening to Earthcast09 live on April 22nd, 2009, then point your browser to http://earthbridges.net … we’ll be following the 24 hour day according to the time in Greenwich, England (GMT time).
Remember, technical expertise is not needed to participate in this project (although if you have that we will make very good use of your skills đ The only thing that is needed is an interest in environmental issues and an interest in working with a great community of folks spread around the globe!
Cheers!
Matt Montagne
Earthbridges/Earthcast 09 Team Member