Twitter won’t ban white supremacists for fear of hurting Republican politicians; automated firing systems in place at Amazon; Engineers at UBC develop anti-ice windshield material
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An employee of Twitter has spoken out about why they have not put in place an algorithm to suppress white supremacists and other extremists, and the story is trending on Reddit. The unidentified employee says that during a recent meeting someone brought up this issue but was told that they would not implement such an alogorithm for fear of affecting innocent accounts. Following the meeting, someone in an AI-related department told this employee that the real reason was that they were afraid the algorithm would also ban Republican politicians and Twitter has already come under fire recently for what some are calling a bias against conservative politicians.
Sticking with stories trending on Reddit, we find a story about the conditions Amazon has its warehouse workers in and exactly how deep automation has affected them and how they are monitored. Much has already been said of the ruthless automated monitoring system that Amazon uses to track its employees and ensure optimal efficiency. But now documents have leaked that state that the automated tracking system can actually fire employees automatically without any input from management. Although the documents do also point out that these terminations can be appealed by either the employee or management. Either way, pretty eerie stuff!
Hopping over to Google Trends, and we find a story all Canadians appreciate. As we all know in the Great White North, winter can disrupt even something as simple as leaving your house. Nobody likes scraping ice off their car. But there may be a solution in sight! Researchers from the University of British Columbia have developed a material that can be sprayed onto windshields that reduces the friction so that you can either just easily wipe away the ice, or it will fall off of its own weight. For all of you who know the pain of scraping ice in the cold, that should sound brrrr-illiant to you. Get it? Brrrr like shivering? Ah, nevermind!