Big Tech’s big retreat from facial recognition

This week, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft announced they were scrapping or pausing their facial recognition work with police. 

Those decisions are a win for skeptics who have pointed out racial bias in facial recognition systems — but when you look at the fine print, they aren’t as big of a step forward as they might sound.

IBM was the first domino

The company said Monday that it’s dropping its facial recognition work in “pursuit of justice and racial equity.” IBM’s move is the farthest-reaching of all — it won’t develop or research facial recognition tech, period.

“The symbolic nature of this is important,” one researcher told the Associated Press. But IBM’s facial recognition efforts were already minimal, so as the AP put it, the decision is “unlikely to affect its bottom line.” 

Meanwhile, IBM still seems to be supplying police departments with crime-predicting AI — another tool that has come under fire for racial bias.

Then Bezos pressed pause

The company announced that it would put a 1-year moratorium on “police use” of its facial recognition software, encouraging Congress to pass regulation in the meantime.

Microsoft’s order also won’t last forever: It won’t supply facial recognition to police until “we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights,” according to company president Brad Smith. 

Microsoft has previously supported legislation that would allow police departments to use facial recognition with some limits. 

But as The Washington Post notes, the announcements from Amazon and Microsoft apply only to police use of the technology: Neither company has mentioned whether it will contract with federal agencies, like ICE or the Defense Department, that regularly use facial recognition.

Amazon Ring’s, meanwhile, is still an active surveillance tool for police.

Facial recognition isn’t going anywhere

Bottom line: Police aren’t likely to lack access to this tech anytime soon.

More than 45 companies offer real-time facial recognition, and some of the most powerful of them — like Clearview AI — are forging ahead. 

Hey, did you do the reading?

Bet you thought you’d left that question behind in Psych 101. It’s making a comeback — but this time Twitter’s asking, instead of some random guy from your lecture.

The app is testing a new feature that aims to check trigger-happy tweeters: If a user retweets an article without opening it, a prompt will pop up encouraging them to read it first. 

Think before you tweet

Trolls, Reply Guys, literal Nazis – Twitter has taken plenty of flack over the years for not addressing some of its darker demons. But the new test is Twitter’s latest baby step toward changing that.

• Late last year, Twitter tested a feature allowing some users to hide specific replies. The platform took it a step further in May, giving some users more flexibility in limiting replies. 
• After conspiracy-theory Twitter had a field day with COVID-19 misinformation, the app began labeling tweets with “disputed content” – slapping warnings on everyone from 5G truthers to President Trump.
• Last month, Twitter rolled out a feature prompting people to revise replies it deemed potentially harmful.

Twitter’s tighten-the-screws strategy isn’t universal among social behemoths — Facebook has taken a more laissez-faire approach. 

And that’s putting it mildly

Mark Zuckerberg’s hands-off style on political speech has landed him in hot water with just about everyone — his own staff, the scientists he supports, and now Joe Biden.

We’re highlighting stories of black business owners from our audience — and their top resources for up-and-coming entrepreneurs of color. If you’re interested in being featured, fill out our survey here.

In her job on the editorial team at Viva Tech — a Paris-based tech conference that describes itself as the largest in Europe — Vera Baker scours the news for speakers to invite. 

But when the conference comes around each June, Baker has noticed a glaring pattern. “The one thing I see always is that there are not a lot of people of color in these rooms,” she said. 

Fast forward to this past April. Baker was on furlough from Viva Tech, and she hit on an idea. All that tech news she was reading? She could spin it into a newsletter for women of color founders, to increase access to major conferences.

Baker sent out her first batch of For Colored Girls Who Tech to 100 friends and colleagues on April 21, and she’s since upped her subscriber count to 1k+. Especially during the pandemic, her work feels pressing. 

“We see the numbers that say women in tech are more likely to be laid off,” she said. “Statistics are even worse for women of color.” One reason: Women, especially women of color, tend to have less seniority than men in general, she says.

Baker’s resources for entrepreneurs of color: 

“I’m a big advocate for applying to incubators, accelerators, and other startup programs that help founders flush out their ideas and connect with investors,” Baker said. Say, the Y Combinators of the world. 

But she also has a few other suggestions: 

• Future VC is working to diversify the VC space.
• AfroTech is a media and events company geared toward black tech workers.
• AfroBytes hosts events in NY, SF, Hong Kong, Nairobi, and other cities to connect the world to the African tech landscape. 

How to support Baker: Subscribe to For Colored Girls Who Tech. 

Katniss Everdeen isn’t the only teen resistance leader to know: A 17-year-old high school student named Wataru is taking on a new local law meant to crack down on video game addiction.

In Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, kids under 20 are only allowed to game for up to 60 minutes on school nights and 90 minutes on weekends. 

Wataru took matters into his own hands, and joined forces with a constitutional lawyer — Tomoshi Sakka — to sue the government.  

Not all heroes wear capes — some just clutch controllers

The Kagawa Prefecture’s concerns aren’t unjustified: The World Health Organization has listed “gaming disorder” as an official disease since 2018. 

But as Sakka explains it, a law like this violates Japan’s constitutional protections for freedom of expression.

None of this is to say Wataru is some kind of video game die hard — he claims to play as much as a “regular high school student.” 

But Wataru felt he had to step up anyway. “If I don’t do something,” he told The New York Times, “who will?”