💭 A thoughtful take on the limits of data and letters to people in prison are being analyzed by algos
😐 We are going to Disney (and getting in with our faces)!
The Good
This is less of a good news story as it is a “holy shit what a well-written and needed story.” The New Yorker, which seems to be upping its tech reporting, had another story this week looking at data, and specifically the limits of it. The article is technically a book review (and I just put a hold on both books at the library), but every example pulled from the book or the author’s work is really interesting. Some are even puzzles that philosophers like to debate about that definitely get steamrolled over when researchers design algorithms.
I might be biased as I’m working on a related piece that will be published next month (I’ll put it in here, don’t worry). But the whole piece is worth a read to help grapple with how to consider tackling big problems with something as imprecise as data can be. This quote particularly stuck out to me:
It’s possible for two things to be true: for numbers to come up short before the nuances of reality, while also being the most powerful instrument we have when it comes to understanding that reality.
The Bad
American prisons are closely monitored. Inmates have their mail screen and read, except for some privileged mail with lawyers. A company called Smart Communications that is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections provides services that they claim can stop contraband from getting in by intercepting the mail and providing digital copies.
Two problems: mail isn’t a major source of drugs—underpaid staff is. The other is that the digital copies cost more money for people to send in, and the quality has been uneven, according to people who have gotten them.
This system, Smart Communications boasted, "eliminates anonymity of postal mail, now postal mail has a digital fingerprint with new intelligence." And this intelligence could be used to crack down on "gang members."
Some of you might know that I volunteer with a books to prisons program. The amount of censorship that already happens should have more First Amendment absolutists very angry. Even if you don’t think this matters to you since you don’t write to anyone in prison, just remember that these type of surveillance tools are tested on the poor and people without other options before making their way to everyone else. The Feds are testing it out, if you need any more reasons to be concerned :) :).
More News
The happiest place on earth is getting their own face rec tech system.
A lot of AI applications are waiting on 5G, which is not rolling out as fast as expected.
Sad we need to write resumes to get algos attention, but here is the advice on how to do it.
By 2031, Americans could be getting $13,500 (a strangely specific number?) if we tax robots in a way that one fancy tech bro outlines here.
Fighter jets could use AI to help swarm enemy planes in the future.
Amazon deliveries drivers are being told they have to sign a ‘Biometric Consent’ agreement so AI-powered cameras and other gear can track them, or lose their job.
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Until prisons don’t reject a book because it shows a naked baby Jesus (true story!!),
Jackie