If Tech Fails to Design for the Most Vulnerable, It Fails Us All

(Wired) What do Russian protesters have in common with Twitter users freaked out about Elon Musk reading their DMs and people worried about the criminalization of abortion? It would serve them all to be protected by a more robust set of design practices from companies developing technologies. Let’s back up. Last month, Russian police coerced…

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Tech’s NDA wall is crumbling. Salesforce is next.

(Protocol) Salesforce just became the latest tech giant to commit to limiting the scope of its non-disclosure agreements, freeing workers up to talk about instances of harassment or discrimination they experience on the job. Salesforce and all California employers are already required to make these changes for workers in the state under California’s Silenced No…

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The Power Of DEI To Improve Risk-Adjusted Returns In Private Equity

(Forbes) Assets managed by diverse-owned firms have only increased by a tenth of a percentage point to 1.4% of the $82.2 trillion US asset management industry since 2011 despite extensive investor commitments to increase the diversity of their investment portfolios. Clear research on the performance, risk and financial diversification benefits of diverse managers is necessary…

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Warren Buffett Faces Renewed Climate Change Challenge by Investors

(The New York Times) Mr. Buffett has repeatedly resisted shareholders who want Berkshire to provide detailed climate disclosures that encompass the whole company, not just parts of it, and spend more on sustainability. His stand may seem odd to some people, given that he has at times backed progressive causes, including higher taxes on the…

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E.U. Takes Aim at Social Media’s Harms With Landmark New Law

(The New York Times) The law, called the Digital Services Act, is intended to address social media’s societal harms by requiring companies to more aggressively police their platforms for illicit content or risk billions of dollars in fines. Tech companies would be compelled to set up new policies and procedures to remove flagged hate speech,…

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Why it’s so damn hard to make AI fair and unbiased

(Vox) Let’s play a little game. Imagine that you’re a computer scientist. Your company wants you to design a search engine that will show users a bunch of pictures corresponding to their keywords — something akin to Google Images. On a technical level, that’s a piece of cake. You’re a great computer scientist, and this…

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