technology
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Facial Recognition Results in Detroit Man Being Arrested for a Crime He Didn't Commit
The long, arduous slog that’s been 2020 has had me reflecting on many things. One of those things has been how extensively movies and shows about cops lie to us. We’re repeatedly inundated with this idea that cops are moral arbiters who, operate like a well-oiled machine, and utilize the most cutting edge technology to…
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Twitch Joins Reddit in Cracking Down on Hate Speech, Forums Related to Trump
Social media companies have consistently been under fire over the past three years for allowing President Donald Trump and his supporters to use their platform to promote hate speech, even though hate speech supposedly violates their terms of service. Now, both Reddit and Twitch have begun to crack down on hateful content spread by the…
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Exclusive: Joey Bada$$ Talks Partnership With NYC Fund for Public Schools to Benefit Homeless Youth
Rapper, actor and Pro Era collective co-founder Joey Bada$$ tells The Root that each year, he creates a list of goals he aims to accomplish for the next 365 days. The Brooklyn native explains that one of 2020’s biggest goals is to go full-throttle with his philanthropic endeavors. He announced Wednesday that he’s partnered with…
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Keep Austin Weird, Keep Artists Paid: How the Cancellation of SXSW Affects Black Creators
I’ve been to SXSW as a patron. I’ve been to SXSW as a member of the press. I’ve always dreamed of going to SXSW with a project. In 2019, I personally witnessed the significance of this (and every) festival’s potential impact on a black creator when I reviewed Numa Perrier’s Jezebel, which has since been…
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Federal Study Confirms Racial Bias in Facial-Recognition Systems. Which, Yeah, We Know
A federal study released Thursday shows that facial recognition technology used by law enforcement misidentified people of color more often than white people. In other news, water is indeed wet. The Washington Post reports that a study conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal lab that develops standards for emerging technology,…
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There’s an App for That: Black Mom Delivers Yuletide Cheer With 'Find Black Santa' App
While dreaming of a white Christmas is common during this time of year, there are plenty of parents bouncing from mall to mall dreaming of something else entirely: a Black Santa. Thankfully, psychiatrist Jihan Woods and her appropriately titled Find Black Santa app are here to help. “I really wanted my children to see a…
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Shawty Got Gifts: A Product Review of Ray J’s Raycon E55 True Wireless Earbuds
I promise you that I don’t engage in pure unfettered foolishness just because I’m comfortable in life. And yet, here we are doing a product review of Raycon’s E55 True Wireless Earbuds. Raycon is, of course, an electronics brand by one William Raymond Norwood Jr. also known as The Artist Formerly Known as Hey Waitaminute Ain’t…
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Elon Musk, You Have 10 Hours to Respond Because Ray J Had the Best Failed Demo Video of All Time
We have ourselves a wacky demo war! In November, Mars-fetishizer Elon Musk introduced the Tesla Cybertruck to the world, basically gifting at least five future episode ideas to the Black Mirror writers’ room. The fact that the car looks like the kind of cars we all drew in elementary school was intriguing enough, but it…
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Not Only Does Facial Recognition Software Often Get Racial ID Wrong, a New Study Finds It Misgenders Trans and Nonbinary Folks Almost All the Time
Nonbinary and transgender identities are increasingly being accepted and normalized throughout society, but not when it comes to high-tech facial recognition software developed by some of the largest tech firms in the world. According to Forbes, a recent study by the University of Colorado, Boulder, found that when it comes to transgender and nonbinary people,…