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Twitter announces first algorithmic bias bounty challenge – ZDNet

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Twitter has announced its first algorithmic bias bounty challenge, offering cash prices ranging from $500 to $3,500 for those who can help the social media giant identify a range of issues. 

After significant backlash last year, the company admitted in May that its automatic cropping algorithm repeatedly cropped out Black faces in favor of White ones. It also favored men over women, according to research from Twitter. Multiple Twitter users proved this fact using pictures of themselves or of famous figures, like former President Barack Obama

Rumman Chowdhury, director of Twitter META, explained that the company decided to change the algorithm and admitted that companies like Twitter often “find out about unintended ethical harms once they’ve already reached the public.”

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On Friday, Chowdhury and Twitter META product manager Jutta Williams unveiled the algorithmic bias bounty competition, which they said was part of this year’s DEF CON AI Village. 

“In May, we shared our approach to identifying bias in our saliency algorithm (also known as our image cropping algorithm), and we made our code available for others to reproduce our work. We want to take this work a step further by inviting and incentivizing the community to help identify potential harms of this algorithm beyond what we identified ourselves,” the two said. 

In creating the program, they were inspired by how the research and hacker communities helped the security field establish best practices for identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities in order to protect the public. 

They said Twitter wanted to build out a similar community but one focused on machine learning ethics that will help the company “identify a broader range of issues than we would be able to on our own.” 

“With this challenge we aim to set a precedent at Twitter, and in the industry, for proactive and collective identification of algorithmic harms,” Chowdhury and Williams wrote. 

“For this challenge, we are re-sharing our saliency model and the code used to generate a crop of an image given a predicted maximally salient point and asking participants to build their own  assessment. Successful entries will consider both quantitative and qualitative methods in their approach.” 

There is a submission page on HackerOne where people can find more information, the rubric used to score each entry and details on how to enter. The entries will be judged by Ariel Herbert-Voss, Matt Mitchell, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, and Patrick Hall.

The first place winner will get $3,500, the second place winner gets $1,000 and third place gets $500. There will also be $1,000 rewards for most innovative and most generalizable. Winners of the competition will be announced at the DEF CON AI Village workshop on August 8.  

Williams told ZDNet that other than learning more about the photo cropping feature, she is expecting to learn what people think “harm” entails.  

“As a product manager, I endeavor to put myself in the shoes of people who use or are affected by our products to understand what a word like that means. Traditionally, we hear from people already looking at algorithmic bias — and I’m expecting that we’ll hear from a much broader community of people who will share a lot of perspective on what harm means to them,” Williams said. 

“Rumman floated the idea with me and our CTO after a conversation with the AI Village organizers — it takes a pretty risk-tolerant company to go first on something like this. Twitter leadership was willing — enthusiastic even. We didn’t have a lot of time to make the deadline for DEFCON, so the two of us got right into brainstorming how to scope something that we could release within the few weeks we had to make a go/no-go decision.”  

She added that the competition will make Twitter much wiser about how the next event should run and be instructive in making it easier for participants and more inclusive.  

The company is also hoping to learn more about how their technology may need to be immediately corrected, Williams explained, and more about how they can better prevent harm. The team will gain a better understanding of how to test and assess algorithms for biases, Williams said. 

Williams noted that there are many unknowns in the emerging field of study on machine learning bias and few programs actively address algorithmic risks. 

“I have hope we’ll have a few more unknowns that we can start working on solving.  Most importantly, maybe, we’re going to learn about working with this community, ways to better measure and classify harms, what it takes to validate reports, ways to mitigate and/or prevent new harms in the future — all of which we can share back to the community,” Williams said.  

“This wasn’t run for our benefit alone — I wouldn’t personally have put the sweat equity into it if it weren’t for the goal of ultimate transparency.”

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Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) New iPad Pro and iPad Air to Hit Markets Soon – TipRanks.com – TipRanks

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Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is likely to introduce its new iPad Pro and iPad Air as soon as May. The much-anticipated product launch will come just ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

End to a Long Wait

As the much-awaited moment draws near, Bloomberg reports that the tech giant’s suppliers have already ramped up production of the devices. For Apple’s devout customers, the introduction of the revamped iPads marks the end of a nearly 18-month drought of major new releases from the company. The iPads are expected to boast features such as new OLED displays for the Pro model and an option for a 12.9-inch screen for the Air model.

Revamped iPads Unleashed

The long wait for new iPad models has resulted in sluggish tablet sales for Apple in recent times. Consequently, the company will likely look to the revamped versions to boost demand. Additionally, Apple is introducing more processing power to the new versions. The Pro models will feature a new M3 chip. Similarly, the iPad Air is also receiving an upgrade with a new processor, moving from its last version’s M1 chip to the latest technology.

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What to Expect in June

Importantly, the product launches are scheduled just before Apple’s highly anticipated annual Worldwide Developers Conference. This event is slated for June 10. The iPhone maker is widely expected to unveil its AI strategy as well as software updates for its range of products at the event. 

Is Apple a Buy, Sell, or a Hold?

Apple’s share price has corrected by nearly 11% year-to-date. The Street has a cautiously optimistic stance on the stock with a Moderate Buy consensus rating. Furthermore, the average AAPL price target of $203.40 points to an 18.6% potential upside in the company’s share price.

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Take-Two Interactive to Acquire 'Borderlands' Developer Gearbox From Embracer Group for $460 Million – Yahoo Canada Sports

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Take-Two Interactive has acquired video game developer Gearbox, the maker of the “Borderlands” franchise, from Embracer Group for $460 million.

Per Take Two, the company “expects the transaction to deepen its successful relationship with Gearbox Entertainment and to provide increased financial benefits through a fully integrated operational structure.”

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As part of the deal, Take-Two will acquire Gearbox IP, including “Borderlands” and “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” franchises, games published by Take-Two’s 2K Games, as well as “Homeworld,” “Risk of Rain,” “Brothers in Arms” and “Duke Nukem.”

Currently, Gearbox has six “key interactive entertainment projects in various stages of development,” per Take-Two, which includes five sequels, two from “Borderlands” and “Homeworld” universes, and at least one “exciting new intellectual property,” all of which have been acquired in the sale.

Take-Two’s purchase of Gearbox is expected to close in June, pending regulatory approval. Upon completion, Gearbox will operate as a studio within 2K, continuing to be led by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and his management team.

Former Gearbox owner Embracer, a Swedish gaming conglomerate who snapped up the rights to “Lord of the Rings” two years ago, has undergone a severe restructuring program over the past year, which has seen the company shut down or dispose of dozens of games studios and titles and lay off hundreds of staff, resulting in aftershocks that have reverberated throughout the games industry.

The sale of Gearbox marks the latest insistence of Embracer unloading assets, following the company divesting Saber Interactive.

“Our acquisition of Gearbox is an exciting moment for Take-Two and will strengthen our industry-leading creative talent and portfolio of owned intellectual property, including the iconic Borderlands franchise,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said. “This combination enhances the financial profile of our existing projects with Gearbox and unlocks the opportunity for us to drive increased long-term growth by leveraging the full resources of Take-Two across all of Gearbox’s exciting initiatives.”

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An OLED iPad Pro and the first big-screen iPad Air will reportedly arrive in May – Engadget

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Apple will finally launch new iPads in early May, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Expected are a new iPad Pro with an OLED display and a faster iPad Air, including a 12.9-inch model for the first time in that lineup. The details of the upcoming iPad models have been consistent, circulating through the rumor mill since last year.

The new iPad Pro models will reportedly add OLED displays (offering deeper blacks and richer colors) and run on the new M3 chip, already found in several Macs. The new tablets are said to launch alongside a redesigned Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. Other than a white color option, the latter has remained unchanged since its arrival four years ago.

Meanwhile, the iPad Air will supposedly run on a new processor. Bloomberg didn’t specify which, but — considering the current model uses the M1, and Apple likely wants to reserve the M3 for the more expensive Pro — the M2 sounds like a safe bet. The 12.9-inch screen option would mark the first time the iPad Air line has offered a display larger than 10.9 inches. Although Apple will charge more for that model than the smaller sibling expected alongside it, that would be the cheapest way yet to get a supersized iPad screen.

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Gurman said early this month that the new tablets would launch alongside the M3 MacBook Air, but the laptop arrived without any iPads in tow. He now reports that Apple’s release schedule was pushed back to finish working on the devices’ software and ironing out the kinks from the “complex new manufacturing techniques” they require.

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