In this three part blog series, Elizabeth and Jen will be focusing on the ethics of AI and data. So often, we hear how we have to be data-driven, but it is not enough. We need to be human-centred. In this three part series, we will look at important topics such as DeepFakes, Bias and AI, why these phenomenon happen, and what we can do about it. At the beginning of 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines by stating that algorithms can perpetuate racism.

In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Professors Brooks Holtom of Georgetown University and David Allen of Texas Christian University describe the results of their latest research. Using big data and machine-learning algorithms, the two developed a real-time indicator to measure two main indicators that an employee is about to quit. The first was "turnover shocks," which are events that prompt workers to consider leaving an organization. This could be a change in leadership or major acquisition, for example, and was measured with events including news articles about a company, changes in stock value and legal action taken against the firm. Researchers also measured "job embeddedness," or how deeply connected a worker felt to their organization, based on publicly available data like number of past jobs, employment anniversary and tenure, skills, education, gender and geography.

So, a few months ago, I was walking down the street in Shenzhen, in the Guangdong Province of southeastern China. I was hungry and looking for lunch. Armed with my credit card and plenty of the local currency, I strode out of my hotel to check out the many street vendors selling delicious-smelling food. Using Google Translate, I was able to order a fried fish dish, but when I went to pay, the vendor refused my credit card. Undaunted I pulled out cash, but that too was refused. The guy pointed me to a large QR code and asked me to pay using the WeChat app. As this was my first day in China, I hadn't yet set the app to pay for things, so I walked away, a little embarrassed. Still hungry, I came to a large junction and saw a promising looking restaurant across a busy street.

Inside a sunny conference room on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., a small team of employees is describing how technology can save the world. Microsoft's Digital Diplomacy unit consists of two dozen policy experts who work on everything from the ethical use of artificial intelligence to protecting the 2020 presidential election from foreign cyberinterference. Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, sits in the middle of the table, sipping coffee from a mug bearing the name of his hometown, Appleton, Wis. The group updates Smith on a tech-industry initiative co-founded by Microsoft to combat terrorist messaging on the Internet. Smith pushes for more ideas. "We need something that will create a new mold," he says.

Artificial Intelligence is the future of growth. There is sure to be at least one article in the newspaper/internet/blogs daily on the revolutionary advancements made in the field of Artificial Intelligence or its subfield disrupting standard industries like Fintech, Banking, Law, or any other. In banking domain digital banking teams of all modern banks planning to transform the customer experience with their AI based chat-driven intelligent virtual assistant i.e. bots. Amalgamating the latest technology of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and cognitive messaging to serve millions of customers is now a new winning strategy? AI and regulation are paving the way for Fintech.

It's tempting to assume that artificial intelligence and machine learning can ensure HR's decisions in key areas such as recruitment and performance management are completely unbiased. But there are still vulnerabilities, argues Jonathan Rennie. The inclination to be prejudiced against certain groups of people, or to instinctively prefer a person who shares our own characteristics, has existed for as long as humans have formed themselves into social groups. Is blind recruitment truly gender blind? While this herd mentality might have been of evolutionary benefit, it becomes problematic when bias screens out individual merit in favour of unfair prejudice.

On August 22, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a request for comments on patenting artificial intelligence inventions. Written comments must be received on or before October 11, 2019. The AI inventorship issue came to a head earlier this year when the inventor of an algorithm named DABUS (device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience) filed beverage container and flashing light patent applications in DABUS' name in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. Additionally, many today see patent eligibility as a significant hurdle to obtaining patent protection in AI technologies. China and the United States lead in patent filings in all AI techniques and functional applications, as well as AI application fields.

But when it comes to AI, he doesn't mince words. AI is humanity's "biggest existential threat," he once proclaimed to some controversy. While that statement may be overblown, the fears aren't: AI will be the next technological force that transforms the face of society--for better or worse--much as the industrial revolution once did. The potential threats of AI are many, and most people agree that ethical AI that benefits humanity as a whole is critical for this technological quantum leap. But what exactly does "ethical AI" mean?

Fox News Flash top headlines for Sept. 10 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com Pop superstar Taylor Swift apparently tried to stop Microsoft from calling its chatbot Tay after the AI-powered bot morphed into a racist troll, according to Microsoft President Brad Smith. In his new book, Tools and Weapons, Smith wrote about what happened when his company introduced a new chatbot in March 2016 that was meant to interact with young adults and teenagers on social media. "The chatbot seems to have filled a social need in China, with users typically spending fifteen to twenty minutes talking with XiaoIce about their day, problems, hopes, and dreams," Smith and his co-author wrote in the book.

LONDON – The European Union's competition chief is getting a new term -- with expanded powers -- in a move that underlines how the bloc's battle to regulate big tech companies is only just beginning. Margrethe Vestager, who angered the Trump administration by imposing multibillion-dollar penalties on the likes of Google and Apple, was reappointed Tuesday for a second five-year term as the bloc's competition commissioner. The Danish politician's tasks will include strengthening competition enforcement in all sectors, stepping up efforts to detect cases of market abuse by big companies, speeding up investigations and helping strengthen cooperation with her global counterparts. Perhaps ominously for the big tech companies that she has cracked down on, Vestager is also getting extra clout. Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the EU's powerful executive arm, promoted Vestager to a commission executive vice-president overseeing the EU's digital innovation and leadership efforts, including artificial intelligence.