Developing classification algorithms that are fair with respect to sensitive attributes of the data has become an important problem due to the growing deployment of classification algorithms in various social contexts. Several recent works have focused on fairness with respect to a specific metric, modeled the corresponding fair classification problem as a constrained optimization problem, and developed tailored algorithms to solve them. Despite this, there still remain important metrics for which we do not have fair classifiers and many of the aforementioned algorithms do not come with theoretical guarantees; perhaps because the resulting optimization problem is non-convex. The main contribution of this paper is a new meta-algorithm for classification that takes as input a large class of fairness constraints, with respect to multiple non-disjoint sensitive attributes, and which comes with provable guarantees. This is achieved by first developing a meta-algorithm for a large family of classification problems with convex constraints, and then showing that classification problems with general types of fairness constraints can be reduced to those in this family. We present empirical results that show that our algorithm can achieve near-perfect fairness with respect to various fairness metrics, and that the loss in accuracy due to the imposed fairness constraints is often small. Overall, this work unifies several prior works on fair classification, presents a practical algorithm with theoretical guarantees, and can handle fairness metrics that were previously not possible.

Sorcero, a Washington DC-based AI learning solutions startup, has announced that its co-founder, Dr. Ken Haase has been invited to give the keynote address at the Automation & AI for Good forum on June 12 in San Francisco. Sorcero was one of ten early-stage AI companies selected to participate in the forum. The forum, sponsored by Village Capital and Autodesk Foundation, is showcasing the leading startups using AI, automation, or robotics to benefit society and create new jobs in emerging industries. "Usually, when we hear about automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workforce, it's in negative terms: robots coming for our jobs, millions of displaced workers, and so on," said Ken Haase, Ph.D., Sorcero co-founder and Chief AI Officer. "At Sorcero, we approach AI very differently," said Dr. Haase."Our goal is not to replace people but to empower them for new and emerging opportunities."

In a report on Thursday, Ofcom said the progress toward the legal separation of BT and Openreach has been "broadly satisfactory", but some steps were yet to be completed such as the transfer of Openreach employees to the new Openreach Ltd due to complexities with BT's pension scheme.

The European Commission has announced the names of 52 experts from across industry, business and civil society who it has appointed to a new High Level Group on AI which will feed its strategy and policymaking around artificial intelligence. In April the EU's executive body outlined its approach to AI technology, setting out measures intended to increase public and private investment; prepare for socio-economic changes; and ensure an appropriate ethical and legal framework. The High Level Group is a key part of the Commission's AI strategy as the experts will feed its policymaking here by making detailed recommendations on ethical, legal and societal issues. The EC put out a call for experts for this "broad multi-stakeholder forum" back in March. The group announced today is comprised of 30 men and 22 women, and includes industry representatives from AXA, Bayer, Bosch, BMW, Element AI, Google, IBM, Nokia Bell Labs, Orange, Santander, SAP, Sigfox, STMicroelectronics, Telenor and Zalando.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., center, leaves after testifying at the European Union (EU) parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. Zuckerberg offered European Union lawmakers his latest mea culpa for the social network's role in a privacy scandal that tarnished his company's reputation. In Open Society and Its Enemies, Sir Karl Popper positioned Plato as public enemy No. 1. Plato, in his work The Republic, proposed an ideal system of government that should cause any lover of liberty and progress to recoil. Popper warned that in Plato's utopia, "Everything possible has been done to eradicate from our life everywhere and in every way all that is private and individual…. Our very eyes and ears and hands seem to see, to hear, and to act, as if they belonged not to individuals but to the community."

By Jennifer Chu MIT engineers have created soft, 3-D-printed structures whose movements can be controlled with a wave of a magnet, much like marionettes without the strings. The menagerie of structures that can be magnetically manipulated includes a smooth ring that wrinkles up, a long tube that squeezes shut, a sheet that folds itself, and a spider-like "grabber" that can crawl, roll, jump, and snap together fast enough to catch a passing ball. It can even be directed to wrap itself around a small pill and carry it across a table. The researchers fabricated each structure from a new type of 3-D-printable ink that they infused with tiny magnetic particles. They fitted an electromagnet around the nozzle of a 3-D printer, which caused the magnetic particles to swing into a single orientation as the ink was fed through the nozzle.

Sitting in New York City, looking up at the clear June skies, I wonder if I am staring at an endangered phenomena. According to many in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industry, skylines across the country soon will be filled with flying cars, quadcopter deliveries, emergency drones, and other robo-flyers. Moving one step closer to this mechanically-induced hazy future, General Electric (GE) announced last week the launch of AiRXOS, a "next generation unmanned traffic" management system. Managing the National Airspace is already a political football with the Trump Administration proposing privatizing the air-control division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), taking its controller workforce of 15,000 off the government's books. The White House argues that this would enable the FAA to modernize and adopt "NextGen" technologies to speed commercial air travel.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would ban child sex dolls and robots because they'normalize sex between adults and minors.' The bill now moves to the Senate, where it must be approved before it is then offered up to the president for signing. 'These dolls can be programmed to simulate rape,' said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. 'The very thought makes me nauseous.' News of the bill's passage in the House was reported by McClatchy.

DISCOVERING and harnessing fire unlocked more nutrition from food, feeding the bigger brains and bodies that are the hallmarks of modern humans. Google's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, thinks his company's development of artificial intelligence trumps that. "AI is one of the most important things that humanity is working on," he told an event in California earlier this year. "It's more profound than, I don't know, electricity or fire." Hyperbolic analogies aside, Google's AI techniques are becoming more powerful and more important to its business.

Breathtaking drone footage captured above Kīlauea has revealed the dramatic changes taking place as the volcano continues to spew ash and gas from its summit more than a month into the current eruption. The flyover mission led by the US Geological Survey and Office of Aviation Services on Thursday aimed to investigate the activity within the Halema'uma'u crater, which has been subjected to rapid changes as Kīlauea rumbles with explosions and small earthquakes. As scientists remotely explore the area using unmanned aircraft, the volcano has shown no sign of letting up; just this morning, it launched a plume 6,000 feet above sea level in yet another explosive event. Look at The Boring Company's high-speed underground transport system Oh deer it's the piddling pool: Animals take over family's garden Kīlauea's summit has been steadily caving in as activity continues, bringing the huge pit crater down with it. The footage captured on June 13 shows how the steep crater walls have slumped in toward the center; now, scientist say the deepest part of Halema'uma'u sits at about 300 m (1,000 ft) below the crater rim.