Ask your resident experts, Why does AI work? Readily, they’ll explain How it works, methods emptying in a mesmerizing jargonfall of gradient descent. But why? Why will an expensive and inscrutable machine create the knowledge I need to solve my problem? A glossary of technical terms, an architectural drawing, or a binder full of credentials will do little to insulate you from the fallout if you can’t stand up and explain Why.
Ride sharing services are touted as great for a passenger, and even great for anyone looking to augment their income with a flexible side job. But there’s a dark side to this market disruption. There are plenty of financial and political questions to be asked. Continue reading “The Dark Side of the Gig Economy”
The Mayor of New York City has announced a plan to locate four jails in each borough except Staten Island. Last March he announced plans to close Rikers Island, but said at the time that it would take 10 years to do so. Will this announcement of the fourth jail site in the Bronx speed up that timeline? Here’s what the Mayor said.
The vendors we use to assist Prisoners upon release are being questioned as to how well they are helping assist with a healthy return to society. Serious questions are being raised about the financial incentives associated with private and public partnerships in supporting the prison industrial complex. In this story JPay is investigated as to whether it’s debit card management system is adequately supporting prisoners upon re-entry to society. A lawsuit has been filed against them alleging that prisoners are forced into accepting their high-fee JPay debit cards to access their own money. Some have even been denied access.
Bitcoin is a currency without a government. But, one may ask, didn’t we have gold, silver and other metals, another class of currencies without a government? It may be too volatile to be a currency, for now. But it is the first organic currency?
As the #MeToo movement continues to spread to touch so many people and industries, sexual relationships are all over the news today. We believe it is appropriate to share the following stories that shed some light on yet another point of confusion.
The first story, a short story entitled Cat Person demonstrates the ambiguity of the word “relationship” itself. It originally appeared in the New Yorker, and you can read it here.
Jessica Bennett then expounded and expanded on the Cat Person story in her essay When Saying “Yes” Is Easier Than Saying ‘No’ in the New York Times Sunday review. Whether or not that cleared things up for you or confused you even further is something we’d love to get your comments on.
Our 5th Impact Forum was held on September 14, 2016 at Civic Hall, NYC’s foremost center for civic technology & innovation, on the topic of Elections. Election Systems are best understood by the rules and incentives constructed around them. Evaluating the United States’ and New York’s Electoral Systems reveals a series of important policy choices that will shape what our electorate will look like in the coming decades. Impact Elections will dig into key question such as: How does money predict elections? How will technology shape voting of the future? Does the current voting system fundamentally fail certain segments of our country’s population? What can voting systems from other nations tell us about options for change?
Impact Experts composing the panel at Elections included: Ann Ravel (Federal Elections Commissioner), Gustavo Rivera (New York State Senator), James Bopp (Plaintiff’s Attorney for Citizens United v. FEC), Richard Briffault (Professor, Columbia Law School), the legal advisor to Stephen Colbert’s Presidential Campaign, the President of the NYC Campaign Finance Board, and more.
We’re sorry you missed the event, but here are some resources to help you catch up on the conversation:
ImpactNYC wrote an issue brief on the future of our election system that you can read here
More than 960,000 Americans worked in the warehouse industry in October, 2017. That’s up 42% over the past decade according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. An additional 246,000 positions went unfilled. Several firms are racing to produce warehouse robots to aid humans in these jobs and help the companies that employ them compete against Amazon. Here’s more on that.
Other firms are working on creating robotic muscles so robots can lift heavier weights and increase overall robotic performance. This article and video outlines those efforts.
“The Art of the Steal” presents the story of how the largest private donation of art on the planet was stolen by local government. Or was it? A story of philanthropy, long term thinking, corporate strategy, and government adoption.
IMPACT New York
IMPACT San Francisco
IMPACT PUBLIC SERVICE FUND, 8 SPRUCE ST.,
NEW YORK, NY, 10038, UNITED STATES
INFO@IMPACTPSF.ORG
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