This Company Built AI to Detect Modern Slavery

By now you probably know that the people who make our clothes, chocolate, and diamond rings often suffer in the process. With growing consumer consciousness and stricter regulations putting pressure on companies to clean up their act, one company has devised a machine learning system it says will sift through data and locate forced labor in the manufacturing process. SAP Ariba, a for-profit software and IT company based in California, works with millions of large and small-scale companies to streamline their supply chain, the system through which their products are sourced, made or delivered. It works with companies that deal with fashion and food, but also technology. "The fact that every country in the world has made forced labor illegal, the acknowledgement alone has made companies realize they cannot take this lightly," said Padmini Ranganathan, the vice president of products and innovation at Ariba.