The type of advice AI chatbots give people varies based on whether they have Black-sounding names, researchers at Stanford Law School have found. The researchers discovered that chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google AI’s PaLM-2 showed biases based on race and gender when giving advice in a range of scenarios. Chatbots: Biased Advisors? The study “What’s in a Name?” revealed that AI chatbots give less favorable advice to people with names that are typically associated with Black people or women compared to their counterparts. This bias spans across various scenarios such as job
Meta’s AI-powered image generator has recently been scrutinized for its difficulty in generating images of interracial couples and friends. Meta’s AI Fails To Generate Interracial Couples The AI tool, introduced in December, revealed its shortcomings when CNN tested its ability to create pictures of people from different racial backgrounds. The requests for images of interracial relationships consistently resulted in the AI producing images of same-race couples or friends, contradicting the diversity seen in real-world relationships. For instance, a request for a Black woman with a white husband yielded images of Black couples. This pattern was broken
US Adds New Hispanic, Middle Eastern And North African Racial Categories For First Time In 25+ Years
The United States has updated its system for collecting information on people’s racial backgrounds. Changes include the introducing a category for Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) people and changing how Hispanic individuals are classified. This historic update, the first in over 25 years, aims to more accurately and nuancedly capture the nation’s evolving demographics. New Hispanic and MENA categories For the first time, individuals of MENA descent, about 1.5% of the U.S. population, will be able to identify themselves as part of a distinct category. Hispanic Americans, who make
Nourish + Bloom, the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store in the US, is reshaping how communities access fresh food after Shark Tank investors declined them. Founded by Jilea and Jamie Hemmings in 2022, Nourish + Bloom aims to reduce the nation’s food deserts, making eating healthy and convenient. Nourish + Bloom Nourish + Bloom is reportedly the first 100% AI-powered supermarket to be open for business 24/7. The store currently offers a range of essentials, from produce to toiletries, and a deli for prepared foods. However, unlike traditional stores, Nourish + Bloom operates
Nigerian startup Thepeer, which gained prominence for its API-based payment solutions, has announced its closure just three years after its inception. Thepeer went from securing $2.1 million in seed funding led by Raba Partnership, with participation from Rali_cap Ventures, BYLD, and fintech giants like Chipper Cash and Stitch, to its unexpected shutdown recently announced. “We embarked on a mission to create something unprecedented, a unique method for transferring money between digital wallets and making payments for goods and services directly from these wallets,” the founders said in a statement. “Yet, we soon realized that exceptional
A 14-year-old passionate about technology, Sophie has developed an innovative AI chatbot focused on mental health. Mental Health meets AI Unlike the usual narratives surrounding AI, such as privacy invasion and fake news, Sophie’s AI chatbot offers hope to users. Her mother, Samantha, in a TikTok video, revealed how Sophie’s creation counters negative self-talk and mental health issues with positive affirmations and exercises in self-awareness and boundary setting. This chatbot’s introduction goes, “Humans often struggle on focusing on the present … and comparing each other to other people who we think are better, when really we should focus
AI’s inability to detect signs of depression in social media posts by Black Americans was revealed in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This disparity raises concerns about the implications of using AI in healthcare, especially when these models lack data from diverse racial and ethnic groups. The Study The study, conducted by researchers from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and its School of Engineering and Applied Science, employed an “off the shelf” AI tool to analyze language in posts from 868 volunteers. These participants, comprising equal
Beyoncé’s latest album, “Cowboy Carter,” holds a bold statement in the ongoing dialogue about the role of AI in music production. Beyoncé’s Use Of Traditional Methods Beyoncé emphasized her commitment to authenticity in music creation in a rare public comment. She clearly preferred real instruments and traditional methods over artificial intelligence and digital manipulation. “The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity,” Beyoncé said in a press release. “With AI and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones…
Visa and Mastercard are setting their sights on Africa’s fintech market. Africa’s booming fintech sector E-commerce is booming across the continent. The Wall Street Journal reports that by the end of this year, an estimated 435 million Africans are expected to shop online, a nearly twofold increase since the pandemic. However, people are less likely to make payments using cards than in other global markets, relying instead on mobile money, digital wallets, and bank transfers. Visa and Mastercard, determined to stay relevant, are pouring millions of dollars into the continent
April Fools’ Day is known for its jokes, but in the tech world, it can be challenging to tell what’s real and what’s not, even on regular days. A lot is happening in tech, from ingenious deceits to blatant scams. We’ve got stories about everything from a Black tech pro who made up a fake assistant to earn more respect to the wrong use of AI in politics and huge money tricks in the crypto world. Here are 9 POCIT stories to check out this April Fools’ Day. 1. The
