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Facebook’s AI Research lab (FAIR) is trying to teach machines how to think like humans. That means being able to pick up a skill or information and use it to create something entirely new. Read More …
In the social media ecosystem, there are influencers seeking new revenue streams and aspiring influencers looking to grow their followers. PearPop wants to be the bridge that connects the two. PearPop, which launched last October, is a platform where users pay TikTok influencers to collaborate on content. The influencers set their price for a duet, stitch, or sound (prices range anywhere from $15 to $3,333 per post), and users have the option to pay outright or bid a higher amount if there’s strong demand. In turn, that access to top influencers could boost a growing account. It’s an idea that’s catching on with investors and creators. PearPop recently announced raising $16 million in a Series A led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, with angel investors including Gary Vaynerchuk, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg, and YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast. PearPop currently has more than 10,000 creators on the platform (including such celebrities as Heidi Klum, Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kerry Washington) and has facilitated more than 1,000 transactions. (The company takes a 25% cut.) These early collabs have yielded some success stories. Model Leah Svoboda went from 20,000 to 141,000 followers after a PearPop duet with Anna Shumate (10.2 million followers). After musician Tobias Dray collaborated with Katelyn Elizabeth (1.6 million followers) for $25 using one of his tracks as a sound on TikTok, that song got a bump from being used 30 times to 671. “I always thought there should be a way to pay someone to collaborate with you directly,” says Cole Mason, founder and CEO of PearPop. “It blew my mind that there wasn’t a way to do that.” Making a market Cole Mason [Photo: courtesy of PearPop] It’s easy to compare PearPop to the celebrity shout-out platform Cameo , but PearPop is establishing a distinct lane by creating a two-sided exchange with creators: High-level influencers earn revenue and budding influencers gain social capital Read More …
Sometimes, the cure is worse than the disease. When it comes to the dangers of artificial intelligence, badly crafted regulations that give a false sense of accountability can be worse than none at all. This is the dilemma facing New York City, which is poised to become the first city in the country to pass rules on the growing role of AI in employment. More and more, when you apply for a job, ask for a raise, or wait for your work schedule, AI is choosing your fate. Alarmingly, many job applicants never realize that they are being evaluated by a computer, and they have almost no recourse when the software is biased, makes a mistake, or fails to accommodate a disability. While New York City has taken the important step of trying to address the threat of AI bias, the problem is that the rules pending before the City Council are bad, really bad, and we should listen to the activists speaking out before it’s too late. Some advocates are calling for amendments to this legislation , such as expanding definitions of discrimination beyond race and gender, increasing transparency, and covering the use of AI tools in hiring, not just their sale. But many more problems plague the current bill, which is why a ban on the technology is presently preferable to a bill that sounds better than it actually is. Industry advocates for the legislation are cloaking it in the rhetoric of equality, fairness, and nondiscrimination. But the real driving force is money. AI fairness firms and software vendors are poised to make millions for the software that could decide whether you get a job interview or your next promotion. Software firms assure us that they can audit their tools for racism, xenophobia, and inaccessibility. But there’s a catch: None of us know if these audits actually work. Given the complexity and opacity of AI systems, it’s impossible to know what requiring a “bias audit” would mean in practice. As AI rapidly develops, it’s not even clear if audits would work for some types of software. Even worse, the legislation pending in New York leaves the answers to these questions almost entirely in the hands of the software vendors themselves. The result is that the companies that make and evaluate AI software are inching closer to writing the rules of their industry. This means that those who get fired, demoted, or passed over for a job because of biased software could be completely out of luck. Read More …
Amazon isn’t reinventing the wireless earbud with its latest Echo Buds, but it is undercutting some rivals on price while tacking on more features. The new Echo Buds officially cost $100 with a USB-C charging case or $120 with a case that supports wireless charging, and Amazon’s discounting both by $20 at launch. Compared to the first-gen Echo Buds, which sold for $130, the new buds are 20% smaller, have better sound quality, and include vents to make them a bit comfier. Amazon has also improved the buds’ active noise cancellation, claiming that it eliminates twice as much outside sound, and there’s a new option to get them in white instead of black. [Photo: courtesy of Amazon] On the software side, Amazon has added a “Find My Earbuds” feature, which you can activate via the Alexa app or an Echo speaker, along with a “VIP Filter” that only plays notification alerts for your favorite contacts. (The latter feature debuted on Amazon’s Echo Frames smart glasses.) None of which adds up to anything revolutionary in the field of wireless earbuds, but if Alexa is your preferred voice assistant, maybe those incremental changes are enough. Read More …
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it had acquired Nuance Communications for $16 billion. Nuance is a pioneer in the field of advanced medical transcription, but the technology is still young. The battle to reduce the administrative burden for doctors using artificial intelligence is intensifying, and the acquisition could position Microsoft well to compete against other tech giants as they jostle for dominance within healthcare. Nuance has a long history as a medical transcription service and has invested heavily in voice recognition technology. The hope is that its technology could potentially reduce the number of hours that doctors spend inputting medical information into patients’ electronic health records (EHR). Read More …