Tech, Society + Business: Daily #001
🔮 Know Thy Algorithms
If you are in the tech business and use algorithms to get things done, you will be under increasing pressure be to understand what’s happening inside the box, explain it to others, and make the entire process more transparent. That’s one of the big lessons from Apple Card - Goldman Sachs’ gender bias problem.
It started with a tweet by tech entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson who wrote that Apple Card offered him twenty times the credit limit as his wife, even though “they filed joint tax returns, live in a community-property state, and have been married for a long time”. Soon, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak replied, saying he and his wife faced the same problem. It led the New York State Department of Financial Services to start a probe into Goldman Sachs credit card practices. The medium post by Linda Lacewell, Superintendent of the department is worth a read.
In India, there’s a growing number of fintech companies that promise to solve the country’s financial inclusion problem using alternate credit scores. It then becomes more important than ever to
explain how the process works (better to err on the side of clarity/transparency, than assume people already know), and
constantly watch out for biases (for the data that’s used to make the decisions often reflect the biases that already exist in the society).
📰 News
Indian intelligence used tools such as sentiment analysis to monitor internet post-Ayodhya verdict (TOI)
Spouses of H1B visa holders in the US can continue to work, for now. (BT)
Uber’s CEO compares the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government to death of a woman in a Uber's self-driving accident - and then backtracks. (Axios)
Alibaba’s Singles Day sales expected to beat last years $30 billion. With half a day to go, it has already crossed $24 billion. (CNN)
📊 Numbers
Netflix India FY 2019: revenues ₹466.7 crore, net profit of ₹5.1 crore (FY 2018 - seven months: revenue ₹58 crore, net profit ₹20 lakh) (ET)
IT services sector added 64,442 jobs in the first six months of this fiscal (up 27%) led by TCS (BS)
'Terminator: Dark Fate Box office collections in the US: $29 million from 4,086 theaters (HR)
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