Colin Gavaghan says there is growing concern about the lack of transparency about decisions made by computer algorithms. Having a human in the loop won't be enough to ensure decisions made using artificial intelligence will always be fair, says an Otago University academic who is helping shaping an emerging international debate on digital rights. Computers have already been used in New Zealand to assist in parole decisions by forecasting the chances of individual prisoners reoffending, and to identify ACC claimants who might be staying on benefits longer than expected. Software has also used by the Social Development Ministry in a brief and controversial experiment to predict children at risk of abuse. But Professor Colin Gavaghan warns an explosion of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to half-baked software flooding the market which won't be good at what it is supposed to do.

Another study shows how images that are used to train image-recognition software amplify gender biases. Two large image collections used for research purposes – including one supported by Microsoft and Facebook – were found to display predictable gender biases in photos of everyday scenes such as sport and cooking. Images of shopping and washing were linked to women, while coaching and shooting were tied to men. If a photo set generally associates women with housework, software trained by studying those photos and their labels create an even stronger association with it.

When we're asked, "What is artificial intelligence?" Perhaps it's a sassy-talking technology like Siri from Apple, or helpful humanoid counterparts like those depicted in The Jetsons. Some might even imagine sophisticated robots threatening to extinguish the human race. Nowadays, there are as many definitions of AI as there are companies trying to pitch AI solutions. So, how do law firms know how to incorporate artificial intelligence? When is the right time to use legal AI? Think of AI as computers performing tasks previously thought to require human intelligence.

Threshold tests have recently been proposed as a useful method for detecting bias in lending, hiring, and policing decisions. For example, in the case of credit extensions, these tests aim to estimate the bar for granting loans to white and minority applicants, with a higher inferred threshold for minorities indicative of discrimination. This technique, however, requires fitting a complex Bayesian latent variable model for which inference is often computationally challenging. Here we develop a method for fitting threshold tests that is two orders of magnitude faster than the existing approach, reducing computation from hours to minutes. To achieve these performance gains, we introduce and analyze a flexible family of probability distributions on the interval [0, 1] -- which we call discriminant distributions -- that is computationally efficient to work with. We demonstrate our technique by analyzing 2.7 million police stops of pedestrians in New York City.

Angelina Jolie and Senator John McCain recently penned a joint op-ed piece for the New York Times. In their lengthy article, Jolie and McCain asked Americans, as well as the U.S. government, to help save the Rohingya Muslims. "Around the world, there is profound concern that America is giving up the mantle of global leadership. Our steady retreat over the past decade has contributed to a wide array of complex global challenges – a dangerous erosion of the rule of law, gross human rights violations and the decline of the rules-based international order that was designed in the aftermath of two world wars to prevent conflict and deter mass atrocities," they wrote. Jolie and McCain also cited a lack of diplomacy in Myanmar, which has led to the fleeing of approximately 680,000 Rohingya Muslims.

Apple has filed a patent application for the world's first entirely crumb-resistant keyboard, hoping to solve a simple problem that has plagued computing from day one. The new MacBook innovation hopes to finally resolve the issue of contaminants like dirt and dust falling into the gaps between shallow keys and causing electrical faults and loss of functionality. Apple in particular has faced criticism over the extreme delicacy of its keyboards in recent years, with MacBook keys held in place by sensitive butterfly switches that can leave the entire board needing to be replaced at considerable expense if they begin to malfunction. The filing suggests a number of ways in which the problem might be eradicated, discussing the application of gaskets, brushes, wipers and flaps to block gaps, the installation of a membrane beneath each key and even a "bellows" effect in which each key stroke forces air through the board, pushing irksome crumbs out. "Keyboard assembly [could include] a substrate, a key cap, and a guard structure extending from the key cap that funnels contaminants away from the movement mechanism," the application reads.

As the importance of artificial intelligence grows in the coming years, many experts have been raising red flags after finding that AI bots often quickly learn to be racist. Inbenta founder Jordi Torras says that the problem isn't as simple as weeding out racist programmers. In fact, he says that even a completely unbiased AI can become racist simply through the basic processes of machine learning. "AI can perpetuate and reinforce a bias that already exists," he writes. "For example, if an organization has traditionally hired male CEOs, a bot trained to find future CEOs would look at the past for likely candidates, based upon real data that indicates that previous CEOs were male. The machine would use male candidates as a predictor of someone who is qualified for a job."

The accident triggered a lawsuit for over $75,000 against General Motors, which owns the automation company Cruise; the 27-year-old plaintiff, Oscar Willhelm Nilsson, went on disability leave because, according to the suit, he "suffered injuries to his neck and shoulder and will require lengthy treatment." Welcome to the fascinating world of accidents involving vehicles that drive themselves and make decisions on their own. The legal system will now need to determine where any blame lies. In a report filed by GM to California's DMV, the company states, referencing a traffic report, that "the motorcyclist was determined to be at fault for attempting to overtake and pass another vehicle on the right…" Traffic at the time was "heavy," and the company says that the biker had been lane-splitting, which is legal in the state and involves a rider cruising between two lanes of traffic. According to the police traffic collision report, a copy of which was obtained by Popular Science, the driver of the Cruise said that "he attempted to take control of the self-driving vehicle by grabbing the wheel, but simultaneously collided with [the motorcycle]."

A number of major internet companies are making a final push to urge lawmakers to modify a proposed bill that would allow victims of human trafficking to sue websites that facilitate the crime, Axios reported. At issue for the companies is the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), a bill that would increase the amount of accountability on online platforms for content created and posted by its users--including opening the companies up to lawsuits from victims of crimes that are aided by the online services. A number of tech firms are working to stop a bill designed to fight human trafficking. A letter from tech advocacy and lobbying group Engine was sent to members of the United States Senate Wednesday in an effort to convince lawmakers to reconsider their position before voting on the bill. Signatories of the letter include popular social network platforms including Reddit, Twitter and Pinterest.

There is much hype around AI in Sales & Marketing. Having witnessed this in the Legal Sector for the last 2 years where every headline, practically every week talks about another law firm embracing AI for Legal Service delivery. Law firms have in fact been using AI for the last decade. E-Discovery, dictating their emails for their PAs to send and so on. Yet we are now at the top of the hype cycle on how AI is going to revolutionise Law.