Checks are needed to guide the development of guard-rails for ethical and responsible community-engaged computing research. The era of "move fast and break things" can produce false starts, injured communities, and widespread techlash. The tech sector can be more socially conscious and focus on community engagement using research from universities, computing researchers, and professionals. For example, smart cities might increase efficiency and improve quality of life, but for whom?10 Research shows how smart city initiatives can harm certain groups through, for example, facial recognition technologies that misidentify, produce ethnic bias and discrimination, or create opportunities for abuse.5 Technology benefits do not always accrue evenly across community members. Ethics rarely keeps pace with technological innovation.

Housed administratively in the College of IST, the Center will bring together researchers from across the University to develop new AI technologies and understand their social and ethical implications. The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence promotes the thoughtful development and application of AI and studies its impact on all areas of human endeavor. In addition to supporting research focused explicitly on AI for social good and mitigating threats from its misuse, through this center, Penn State will encourage that all AI research and development activities consider social and ethical implications as well as intended and possible unintended consequences. "Given the rapid expansion and progression of interdisciplinary research and the wide-ranging impact of artificial intelligence on society, this center will engage and enable Penn State scholars and educators to work together and use AI to address the grand challenges of our time," said Andrew Sears, dean of the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), who led the founding of the center. The endeavor will bring together researchers from diverse disciplines across the University, enabling multidisciplinary research and educational programs that will shape the future of AI.

On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. announced AI for Health, a new $40 million, five-year program and part of the AI for Good initiative, that will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to empower researchers and organizations addressing some of the world's toughest challenges in health. "Artificial intelligence has the potential to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges, like improving the health of communities around the world," said Brad Smith, president, Microsoft. "We know that putting this powerful technology into the hands of experts tackling this problem can accelerate new solutions and improve access for underserved populations. That's why we created AI for Health." In a new era of tech intensity, in which technology is reshaping every organization and becoming embedded in the fabric of every aspect of our lives, digital advances will continue to reshape our world in profound ways.

Indian multinational corporation Wipro, in collaboration with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), will be setting up a platform to train students in emerging technologies -- artificial intelligence (AI), data science, internet of things (IoT) and cyber securities. Wipro has decided to take up the initiative under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, TalentNext, that aims to enhance the quality of engineering education in India by training college faculties and academic leaders, who will later train students. The platform, set up by Wipro and Nasscom, will be looking to train 10K students from over 20 engineering colleges in India. With this platform, the duo wants to build a talent pool of students certified by Wipro and Nasscom and provide them with greater job opportunities. Wipro's Chairman Premji, in a press release, said that the platform will bring together content and people, alongside the focus on curation and learning at one's own pace.

There is a discrepancy in the quality of education worldwide, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) education isn't an exception. While some students enjoy small classrooms with fancy electronic whiteboards and qualified instructors, others don't even have electricity. The world is digitally and economically divided, especially in the case of AI education. There are numerous barriers preventing students from acquiring AI skills besides a foundation in mathematics. Many underserved communities lack resources.

WIRE)--Citrine Informatics has been named an Enterprise of the Year Gold winner in the Best in Biz Awards, the only independent business awards program judged by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America. Citrine Informatics' artificial intelligence technology is used by the world's largest materials and chemicals companies to accelerate the product development cycle. Since 2011, Best in Biz Awards' entrants have spanned the spectrum, from the most innovative local companies and start-ups to some of the most recognizable global brands. With more than 700 entries, the 9th annual program attracted a record number of entries from an impressive array of public and private companies of all sizes and spanning all geographic regions and industries in the U.S. and Canada. Best in Biz Awards 2019 honors were conferred in 80 different categories, including Company of the Year, Fastest-Growing Company, Most Innovative Company, Best Place to Work, Customer Service Department, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Product, Enterprise Product, Best New Service, CSR Program, Event and Blog of the Year.

CPO Rising's Technology Round-Up returns today with an assortment of supply management technology news and updates from the past month to share with our community. If you are a sourcing, procurement, or spend management solution provider and you are continually innovating the way that procurement and supply chain leaders and practitioners drive value, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us a note at editor at cporising dot com. Late last month, at the WeAreDevelopers Congress in Vienna, JAGGAER unveiled its neural network-based Automatic Spend Classification tool. It leverages elements of artificial intelligence (AI), namely natural language processing (NLP) and neural networks, to analyze text descriptions, product names, and product numbers within invoices and other documents.

In late 2018, Amazon discontinued the use of their AI-based recruitment system because they found that it was biased against women. According to sources close to the matter, the tool gave low ratings to resumes with the terms "woman" or "women's" in applications for technical roles, and went as far as downgrading applicants from two all-women's colleges. This problem is not new. In 2003, the National Bureau of Economic Growth (NBER) conducted an experiment to track the presence of racial bias in hiring. In the test, they sent out two sets of fictitious resumes with identical information about education and experience.

In late 2018, Amazon discontinued the use of their AI-based recruitment system because they found that it was biased against women. According to sources close to the matter, the tool gave low ratings to resumes with the terms "woman" or "women's" in applications for technical roles, and went as far as downgrading applicants from two all-women's colleges. This problem is not new. In 2003, the National Bureau of Economic Growth (NBER) conducted an experiment to track the presence of racial bias in hiring. In the test, they sent out two sets of fictitious resumes with identical information about education and experience.

Notwithstanding the question of bias, AI can have a positive social impact - for example, by automating large amounts of processes that currently depend on human labor but exact a steep cost on the individuals performing that labor. One such instance is identifying and stopping the spread of child abuse images on the dark web. Another example of AI's ability to relieve pressure on human agents and produce better outcomes us provided by Annie MOORE, developed by researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Lund. The software matches refugees to locations based on their needs and skills and the availability of resources and opportunities, and is increasing the likelihood of someone finding employment within three months by more than 20 per cent as well as improving their chances of integrating into their new communities. This data processing power is also, through machine learning, accelerating the development of new models for understanding how the world is changing - ClimateAI, for instance, has developed a forecasting engine for the agriculture and energy sectors that can model the impact of climate change on asset values over time periods ranging from a single season to an entire decade.