Jeff Bezos is worth $160bn – yet Congress might bail out his space company
[Link]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
White newspaper, Black city
“After years of sluggish progress, there’s something to be said about how journalists are growing more willing to publicly air the dirty laundry of their own publications in the name of making them better. While new journalism organizations are radically redefining what it means to reflect the communities they
Lyft asked if this driver needed help. He was already dying.
“Lyft says it’s worked hard to develop security features to keep drivers safe. In addition to the texts the company sends, Lyft also has 24/7 safety teams and partners with ADT, so drivers can use the Lyft app to contact the security company and get emergency services sent
the html review
“The html review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web.” [Link]
Brooklyn Public Library Launches Campaign Against State Book Bans
“The Books UnBanned campaign provides youth ages 13 to 21 with online access to banned books.” Just superb. [Link]
Supreme Court Denies Equal Rights To Puerto Ricans — Again
““Equal treatment of citizens should not be left to the vagaries of the political process,” Sotomayor wrote. “Because residents of Puerto Rico do not have voting representation in Congress, they cannot rely on their elected representatives to remedy the punishing disparities suffered by citizen residents of Puerto Rico under Congress’
Planting Undetectable Backdoors in Machine Learning Models
“Given the computational cost and technical expertise required to train machine learning models, users may delegate the task of learning to a service provider. We show how a malicious learner can plant an undetectable backdoor into a classifier. On the surface, such a backdoored classifier behaves normally, but in reality,
On anti-crypto toxicity
“If you feel the urge to “cyberbully” someone in crypto, direct it at the powerful players behind crypto projects that are actively taking advantage of the vulnerable. Or, just as reasonably, direct it at the powerful tech executives, venture capitalists, elected representatives, and lobbyists who have contributed to the untenable
Black principals receive leadership training, support through new initiatives
“Studies link Black principals, especially women, to better academic performance. New initiatives aim to train and support them.” [Link]
Elon, Twitter, and the future of social media
While I don’t think the guy who runs racist factories is necessarily the right person to buy a prominent social media company in order to “save democracy”, he’s right about one thing: if Twitter is to truly be a public square, the algorithm needs to be open sourced.
Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy
“In Frequency’s first clinical study, the company saw statistically significant improvements in speech perception in some participants after a single injection, with some responses lasting nearly two years.” [Link]
Ukraine using ClearviewAI facial recognition to identify Russian war dead
“In another conversation, a stranger sent a message to a Russian mother saying her son was dead, alongside a photo showing a man’s body in the dirt — face grimacing and mouth agape. The recipient responded with disbelief, saying it wasn’t him, before the sender passed along another photo