The Daily Ubuntu20 articles · page 1 of 2
A compass written together
In 2018, hundreds of Montrealers helped write ten principles so that artificial intelligence serves everyone, without discrimination.
ReadA resemblance is not proof
In Detroit, a Black father was wrongly arrested in front of his daughters because of software; his courage changed the police's rules.
ReadA tool too good to be honest
The RCMP used facial recognition software built on photos that the commissioners found had been collected illegally; even the police must know where their tools come from.
ReadDraw me a judge
In 2023, a Bloomberg analysis showed that an image generator amplified gender and skin-colour stereotypes. A tool that makes images also makes places for people.
ReadErrors that do not fall at random
When an algorithm gets certain faces wrong more often, it is not a neutral bug: it is an incomplete "us."
ReadMeasuring illness in dollars
A U.S. health algorithm judged patients' needs by their past spending; Black patients, who received less care, therefore seemed less sick.
ReadOne shared breath
From Morton's skulls to spirometers "corrected" by race, science long served hierarchy; today it is learning to undo it.
ReadRobodebt: when the machine accuses
In Australia, an automated calculation wrongly claimed hundreds of thousands of debts from welfare recipients. A royal commission found it cruel and unlawful.
ReadTeaching one another, even in code
In Montreal, a Mila program trains young Indigenous people in artificial intelligence so that tomorrow's technology carries their voices too.
ReadThe crop that chose a face
In 2020, users showed that Twitter's automatic cropping favoured certain faces; the company measured the bias, then gave the choice back to people.
ReadThe machine does not refuse alone
Ottawa requires its departments to assess the risks of their algorithms before using them, and to keep a human in the loop when the answer is no.
ReadThe right to talk to a human
In Quebec, Law 25 requires businesses to say when a machine alone has made a decision, and to let the person explain themselves to someone.
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