Although value-aligned language models (LMs) appear unbiased in explicit bias evaluations, they often exhibit stereotypes in implicit word association tasks, raising concerns about their fair usage. We investigate the mechanisms behind this discrepancy and find that alignment surprisingly amplifies implicit bias in model outputs. Specifically, we show that aligned LMs, unlike their unaligned counterparts, overlook racial concepts in early internal representations when the context is ambiguous. Not representing race likely fails to activate safety guardrails, leading to unintended biases. Inspired by this insight, we propose a new bias mitigation strategy that works by incentivizing the representation of racial concepts in the early model layers. In contrast to conventional mitigation methods of machine unlearning, our interventions find that steering the model to be more aware of racial concepts effectively mitigates implicit bias. Similar to race blindness in humans, ignoring racial nuances can inadvertently perpetuate subtle biases in LMs.

Sony has released two ultra-high-end Walkman MP3 players aimed squarely at audiophiles -- and no-one else. The headliner, the $3,700 NW-WM1ZM2 (pictured left), combines an S-Master HX digital amp with "fine-tuned" capacitors, thick Kimber Kable (to link the amp to the headphone jack) and a 99.99 percent pure gold-plated, oxygen-free copper chassis. It'll have 256GB of expandable storage. A lower-cost model, the $1,400 NW-WM1AM2 (shown right), offers similar functionality to the ZM2, but in an aluminum alloy body with'just' a low-resistance oxygen-free copper cable. You'll also have to make do with 128GB of expandable space. Both Walkman models are available now.

Even prior to extended quarantines, lockdowns, and self-isolation, it was hard to imagine life without the electronic escapes of noise-cancelling earbuds, smartphones, and tablets. Of course, there was most certainly a before and after, a point around which the cultural gravity of our plugged-in-yet-tuned-out modern lives shifted. Its name is Walkman, and it was invented, in Japan, in 1979. After the Walkman arrived on American shores, in June of 1980, under the temporary name of Soundabout, our days would never be the same. Up to this point, music was primarily a shared experience: families huddling around furniture-sized Philcos; teens blasting tunes from automobiles or sock-hopping to transistor radios; the bar-room juke; break-dancers popping and locking to the sonic backdrop of a boom box.

Sony Corp., which is emerging from five years of brutal restructuring that gutted its workforce and product lineup, wants to show off a few new things. There's the Aromastic, a digital smell dispenser, AeroSense self-flying drones and a collection of tech-infused accessories called "wena." These gadgets are being dreamed up by the Seed Accelerator Program (SAP), started by Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai in 2014 to encourage invention and risk-taking. With Sony back on solid financial footing, shown by its estimate-topping results in the latest quarter, the company has more breathing room to experiment. Instead of focusing on raw, technical innovation, the devices coming out of the lab hark back to an era when Sony was able to take existing technology and combine it with slick marketing to create must-have gadgets such as the Walkman and Handycam. Another hit product could help Hirai cement his legacy as the one who not only turned Sony around, but got it inventing again.

Think of the gear you can't live without: The smartphone you constantly check. The camera that goes with you on every vacation. The TV that serves as a portal to binge-watching and -gaming. Each owes its influence to one model that changed the course of technology for good. Some of these, like Sony's Walkman, were the first of their kind. Others, such as the iPod, propelled an existing idea into the mainstream. Some were unsuccessful commercially, but influential nonetheless. And a few represent exciting but unproven new concepts (looking at you Oculus Rift). Rather than rank technologies--writing, electricity, and so on--we chose to rank gadgets, the devices by with consumers let the future creep into their present. The list--which is ordered by influence--was assembled and deliberated on at (extreme) length by TIME's technology and business editors, writers and reporters.