Could an Ethically-Correct AI Shut Down Gun Violence?

The Next Web writes:
A trio of computer scientists from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York recently published research detailing a potential AI intervention for murder: an ethical lockout. The big idea here is to stop mass shootings and other ethically incorrect uses for firearms through the development of an AI that can recognize intent, judge whether it’s ethical use, and…

Facebook Can’t Seem To Do Anything About ‘Stop the Steal’ Groups

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE: On Thursday night, Facebook announced it had activated “break glass” measures to try to quell the spread of disinformation, which has been supercharged by the lies being spread by President Donald Trump and his allies. The unprecedented move may have been triggered by Facebook’s decision hours earlier to shut down a viral group…

State Officials Ask Trump Administration To Pull 3D-Printed Gun Files Offline

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Two dozen state attorneys general are asking the Trump administration to crack down on Defense Distributed’s Defcad site for selling 3D-printed gun files. In a letter sent today, they urged the Justice Department and State Department to enforce rules against exporting weapons and making undetectable firearms. “If the federal government fails to…

Learn and take action with three new Teach-Outs from JHU, Emory, and the University of Michigan

A guest post written by:  Benjamin Morse, Design Manager University of Michigan Stephanie Parisi, Associate Director of Instructional Design Emory University @snparisi  Rebecca G. Williams, Research Program Manager Johns Hopkins University @rebecca_gwen Our world is evolving rapidly and the need to understand complex societal issues and engage in productive and civil discourse has never been […]
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Stephen King, Elon Musk Criticize Social Media Policies

CaptainDork spotted CNN’s update about best-selling author Stephen King: “I’m quitting Facebook,” the author said on Twitter Friday. “Not comfortable with the flood of false information that’s allowed in its political advertising, nor am I confident in its ability to protect its users’ privacy….” His Facebook profile has since been deleted. King encouraged his fans to follow him on Twitter. But…

20 US States Want to Stop the Posting of Blueprints For 3D-Printed Guns

An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:
Attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a federal regulation that could allow blueprints for making guns on 3D printers to be posted on the internet. New York Attorney General Tish James, who helped lead the coalition of state attorneys general, argued that posting the blueprints would…

Gaggle Knows Everything About Teens And Kids In School

Gaggle monitors the work and communications of almost 5 million students in the U.S., and schools are paying big money for its services. Hundreds of company documents unveil a sprawling surveillance industrial complex that targets kids who can’t opt out. Caroline Haskins writes via BuzzFeed News: Using a combination of in-house artificial intelligence and human content moderators paid about $10 an…

145 Executives Demand Senate Action on Gun Violence

In a direct and urgent call to address gun violence in America, the chief executives of some of the nation’s best-known companies sent a letter to Senate leaders on Thursday, urging an expansion of background checks to all firearms sales and stronger “red flag” laws. From a report: “Doing nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it is…

What’s new on Coursera for Business – August 2019

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant Coursera released 44 courses on our platform in August. We are particularly excited to announce a range of new courses from the manufacturing, architecture, and engineering design software industry leader, Autodesk, on Generative Design and CAD/CAM for manufacturing. Here are our top picks for enterprise for this past […]
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Walmart Takes Down Displays of Violent Video Games in Stores

Walmart is removing displays and signs of violent video games in its stores in the wake of two deadly shootings at its locations in Texas and Mississippi in recent weeks. From a report: “We’ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and this action does not reflect a long-term change in our video game assortment,”…