Associated Press: Gary Neville and Jill Scott secretly swapped X accounts to shine a light on gender bias in soccer

Associated Press: Gary Neville and Jill Scott secretly swapped X accounts to shine a light on gender bias in soccer. “As one of soccer’s most outspoken commentators, Gary Neville is used to getting abuse from fans. Over the space of five days in May, however, the attacks he received on social media were unlike anything he’d experienced before. For Jill Scott, on the other hand, it was depressingly familiar.”

Dartmouth College: Subscriptions Drive Views of Extremist Videos on YouTube

Dartmouth College: Subscriptions Drive Views of Extremist Videos on YouTube. “According to a new study published in Science Advances, however, exposure to alternative and extremist video channels on YouTube is not driven by recommendations. Instead, most consumption of these channels on the platform can be attributed to a small group of users high in gender and racial resentment and who subscribe to these channels and follow links to their videos. The study authors caution that these findings do not exonerate the platform.”

Rolling Stone: These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI

Rolling Stone: These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI. “TIMNIT GEBRU DIDN’T set out to work in AI. At Stanford, she studied electrical engineering — getting both a bachelor’s and a master’s in the field. Then she became interested in image analysis, getting her Ph.D. in computer vision. When she moved over to AI, though, it was immediately clear that there was something very wrong.”

La Trobe University: Online trolls impact local council participation

La Trobe University: Online trolls impact local council participation. “A new study, led by La Trobe University researchers, has found that women councillors experience more gender-based (on and off-line) incivility than men across the election campaign and during their first year in office. The study highlights the impact hostility and bullying has on the willingness of women to put their hand up for local elections, with double the number of women than men reporting unwillingness to run in future elections.”

WIRED: Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine

WIRED: Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine. “WIRED obtained a number of internal 4chan documents through a public records request. Those documents show how 4chan’s team of moderators—janitors, in their own nomenclature—manage the site. Internal emails, chat logs, and moderation decisions reveal how the site’s janitors have helped shape it in their own image, using their moderation powers to engender 4chan’s particular brand of edgelord white supremacy.”

‘There is no standard’: investigation finds AI algorithms objectify women’s bodies (The Guardian)

The Guardian: ‘There is no standard’: investigation finds AI algorithms objectify women’s bodies. “AI tools rate photos of women as more sexually suggestive than those of men, especially if nipples, pregnant bellies or exercise is involved.” Considering Facebook’s longstanding history of incorrectly moderating anything vaguely resembling a breast, I can’t say I’m shocked.

New York Times: Silicon Valley Slides Back Into ‘Bro’ Culture

New York Times: Silicon Valley Slides Back Into ‘Bro’ Culture. “Two parallel Silicon Valleys have emerged. There’s the ThunderDome of Twitter, where tech thought leaders collect likes by posting edgy memes and spouting flip political takes — then invoke cancel culture when they are criticized. They troll their way into impulsive $44 billion acquisitions, then back out. They promote an entirely online existence inside the so-called metaverse. Then there’s the day-to-day reality, where women still get just 2 percent of venture capital funding and Black founders get 1 percent, where the largest tech companies have made negligible progress on diversifying their staff, and where harassment and discrimination remain common.”

Rolling Stone: New Report Claims YouTube Is Cashing in on Misogyny, Racism, and Targeted Harassment

Rolling Stone: New Report Claims YouTube Is Cashing in on Misogyny, Racism, and Targeted Harassment . “In an exclusive interview, Bot Sentinel founder Christopher Bouzy tells Rolling Stone that the report uncovered a pattern of unchecked hate speech, misogyny, racism, and targeted harassment singularly focused on famous and identifiable women. The most mentioned women in the channels were Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and actress Amber Heard, both of whom have remained extremely vocal about the long-term mental and emotional effects of targeted harassment.”

University of Alberta: AI researchers improve method for removing gender bias in natural language processing

University of Alberta: AI researchers improve method for removing gender bias in natural language processing. “Researchers have found a better way to reduce gender bias in natural language processing models while preserving vital information about the meanings of words, according to a recent study that could be a key step toward addressing the issue of human biases creeping into artificial intelligence.”

News@Northeastern: Now Banned By Tiktok And Others, Andrew Tate Rode Wave Of Online Misogyny, Says Northeastern Expert

News@Northeastern: Now Banned By Tiktok And Others, Andrew Tate Rode Wave Of Online Misogyny, Says Northeastern Expert. “Tate, a British-American social media influencer, is well known for making misogynistic comments in his videos, which have been removed from TikTok but at one point had billions of views. In the videos, Tate referred to women as property, described how he would attack a woman who accused him of cheating, and said he doesn’t believe that depression is real (Tate says his comments were taken out of context). Following a public outcry, last week he was banned from YouTube, TikTok and Facebook. But experts say that Tate is not acting in a silo; in fact, online misogyny has been on the rise for years, and social media platforms are not built to handle it.”