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Tag: Cambridge

  • Boston Bans Facial Recognition For Government Use

    Boston Bans Facial Recognition For Government Use

    Boston has joined the growing ranks of US cities that have banned the use of facial recognition by government officials.

    Facial recognition has become one of the most controversial technologies in use. In the wake of George Floyd’s death, organizations have been reevaluating their stand on facial recognition. Companies like Microsoft, IBM and Amazon have changed their policies to exclude selling their facial recognition tech to police.

    Much of this is because of the issues with bias that are prevalent in facial recognition. Despite their best efforts, companies have struggled to keep bias from creeping in on the basis of race, ethnicity and sex.

    These concerns have led cities to take action, banning facial recognition for government agencies. Oakland and San Francisco, California, as well as Cambridge, Massachusetts have already instituted such bans.

    According to Boston.com, “in a unanimous vote Wednesday afternoon, the 13-member body passed an ordinance prohibiting the use of facial recognition technology by Boston police and other city departments, amid evidence that the existing systems misidentify people of color at an exorbitantly high rate.”

    There are some exceptions. Police will still be able to obtain evidence from facial recognition technology, as long as that evidence was gathered by another agency investigating a “specific crime,” and was not at the behest of a Boston city official. Similarly, city officials will not be allowed to use facial recognition provided by third parties.

    Given the current political climate, it’s a safe bet Boston won’t be the last city to take such measures.

  • Amazon Reportedly Ramping Up Its Drone Efforts

    Amazon Reportedly Ramping Up Its Drone Efforts

    It was just under a year ago that Amazon revealed Amazon Prime Air, its ambitious project that would see the online retail giant delivering packages to customers by drones. The announcement was met with a great deal of skepticism (for a variety or reasons), but Amazon has shown no signs of backing off from the goal.

    “One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” Amazon said back then. Since then, it’s already been working on newer models of the drones. It April, CEO Jeff Bezos said the company was already working on its 7th and 8th-generation models.

    Now, Amazon is reportedly expanding its R&D efforts in Cambridge, which includes an increased focus on Amazon Prime Air. Natasha Lomas at TechCrunch reports:

    A source familiar with the company’s plans told TechCrunch it will focus on Prime Air, its autonomous delivery drones project, and on beefing up its speech tech R&D team.

    The e-commerce giant has been staffing up for Prime Air over the summer, including seeking hires in Cambridge. It has continued advertising for Prime Air positions in the U.K. university town this fall, including a Flight Operations Engineer role posted this month, a Site Leader role posted in October and a Senior Research Scientist role posted in September. The latter asks for “experience applying machine learning approaches to complex problems,” among other skills.

    According to the report, the new R&D expansion will also include work on speech technology.

    In August, rival Google introduced its own delivery drones under the name Project Wing. We haven’t heard a whole lot about that since then.

    Amazon, however, has been frequently increasing its methods of getting products to people. It’s even been testing same-day delivery by taxi.

    Image via Amazon

  • Irish Nanny Charged in Baby Death Requests Bail

    New evidence in favor of an Irish nanny accused of murder may be a turning point in the case of a deceased Cambridge, Mass., baby girl.

    Aisling Brady McCarthy, 35, is facing charges in the death of 1-year-old Rehma Sabir, who allegedly succumbed to head injuries at the time of her supervision.

    McCarthy’s attorneys presented new substantial medical evidence on Friday to Woburn’s Superior Court. It apparently contradicts when Sabir sustained other additional injuries.

    According to Boston.com, Attorney Marian Ryan received validation from a medical expert that the baby “suffered serious injuries to her vertebrae while traveling with her family overseas in the weeks before [she] was fatally injured on Jan. 14, 2013.”

    Defense attorneys are more than certain that someone else is to blame for Sabir’s death, especially since McCarthy was not the caretaker during the time of her affliction.

    “This woman is innocent and is sitting in jail,” Attorney Melinda Thompson told the newspaper.

    However, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald thinks that new evidence will fail to change the timing of the beating that led up to Sabir’s death. (image)

    “There is no question that the injury was sustained within the seven hours where the defendant was the sole caretaker,” the D.A. said.

    McCarthy is currently without bail. Her attorneys have asked Middlesex Superior Court Judge S. Jane Haggerty to set bail for $5,000 with the addition of a GPS locator.

    The judge did not give an official decision but instead scheduled a conference hearing for Feburary 21.

    If released, McCarthy faces deportation for immigration violations within her visa waiver program. Regulations state that if a person stays longer than 90 days, then the Department of Homeland Security has the right to take custody and remove them from the country.

    “She was in this country illegally, she came to this country 10 years ago through some visa waiver program. If you violate that and do not leave when you’re supposed to leave, you’re subject to deportation,” said Fitzgerald.

    Thompson disproved Fitzgerald’s claims and said that McCarthy will not face deportation since she handed over her passport to authorities following her arrest.

    The official trial will begin on April 7. Only then will McCarthy’s fate be decided between two options: to serve time or get the boot.

    Image via  YouTube

     

  • Here’s Eric Schmidt’s Entire Cambridge Speech [Video]

    Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt continues to make headlines. In fact, though he handed the CEO reins to Larry Page in 2011, he may still grab more headlines than page thanks to things like his imaginative speeches (like the one where he talked about replacing himself with a robot at parties) and a recent trip to North Korea.

    His latest speech took place at Cambridge, and is his latest look at the future. Business Insider referred to Schmidt’s vision as “a chilling drone-filled future.”

    The speech is about 45-minutes long, so if you have some time to spend, and want to have your mind blown by one of the most powerful executives of one of the most powerful companies in the world, hit the play button. By the way, he also talks a little about North Korea again and about Genghis Khan.