Tag: Bill Gates

This City’s Police Want to Protect Your Right to Privacy

Posted on by robbie

What did the Seattle Police Department do when an activist requested their entire archive of patrol car videos — all 1.6 million videos? For the hometown of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, the answer was easy: Seattle’s cops went to the computer nerds.

Law enforcement agencies are promising body cameras will bring a new era of accountability by capturing cops’ every interaction on film in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and other cities encouraged by Obama’s promise of $263 million in funding. But all that video presents a technical problem: how can a department possibly sort and release so many hours of footage? Stepping up its commitment to transparency and collaboration, Seattle’s police asked 80 local tech wizards from Amazon, Microsoft and Evidence.com to streamline the disclosure process at its first department-sponsored hackathon earlier this month.

“We’re having a conversation about transparency and privacy. How do the two intersect?” Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a spokesperson, tells the The Seattle Times. “How can the Seattle Police Department share terabytes of information we’re storing?”

Citizens only feel cameras increase accountability if they trust the devices are used properly, if they cannot be switched off at critical moments or if the video won’t be buried by scandal-averse commanders. But police departments cannot simply post raw video of every arrest to YouTube. To protect individuals’ privacy, state law prevents police from releasing details like the faces of juveniles or sexual assault victims as well medical details or mental health history, explains Mary Perry, the police department’s counsel.

But currently, removing a simple cut from a one-minute video “can take specialists upward of half an hour, whereas more complicated edits — like blurring multiple faces or pieces of audio — can take much, much longer,” an S.P.D. statement says. That’s a problem when the police are already burning an average of 7,000 DVDs every month and will have even more as body cams are rolled out for the entire force.

Technologies like image-recognition seem to be the police’s best bet for a quicker, cheaper way to systematically redact sensitive information. “Government agencies don’t jump out to me to be at the forefront of technology research,” says Simon Winder, head of Impressive Machines, a tech company focused on robotics, machine learning and recognition software. But with such huge tasks, cities are primed to adopt cutting-edge solutions. “There are so many ways we can yet use technology,” Seattle’s mayor Ed Murray responds. “We want to be the number one digital city.”

One of the recurring topics the hackers discussed was what to do when an algorithm makes an error in identifying a person or a frame of video, particularly because so many are shot in the dark of night or in the blur of pursuing a suspect. “The problem is you can’t just say ‘oops’ when you violate someone’s right to privacy,” says Brandon Arp, a software developer at Groupon who attended the hackathon. He proposed a “very conservative” system that hides more information from a clip than required by law but allows for a person to request a manual secondary review of individual redactions.

Ideas like this emerged over the five-hour brainstorming session (and free lunch) in the basement of police headquarters, prompting officials to predict they will become a national model. Officer Patrick Michaud says he was “blown away” by the hackathon. “Options came out of it, which is what we look for,” he tells The Seattle Times. “A different way to look for problems always works for us.”

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Three Big Life Takeaways from Bill Gates

Posted on by robbie

You wouldn’t think one of the richest, most successful people in the world would have a lot of regrets. And you’re right. But, hindsight and age brings needed perspective to any life.
During an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, Microsoft founder Bill Gates offered some choice advice for the next generation of innovators to stay ahead of the curve and lead a fulfilling, balanced existence.

Machine learning is the next wave

Forget Big Data and the Internet of Things. The next revolutionary trend, according to Gates, is computers that learn.  When asked what he would focus on if he were currently a student and what the most significant technological breakthrough in coming years will be, Gates said:
“The ultimate is computers that learn. So called deep learning which started at Microsoft and is now being used by many researchers looks like a real advance that may finally learn.”

Cultivate a habit of philanthropy

Along with his wife, Gates has pledged to give more than half of his wealth to charity. The couple got a big head start with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he spends roughly two-thirds of his time doing everything from solving public health crises in Africa to reforming American education.
“Just creating an innovative company is a huge contribution to the world,” he wrote. “During my 20′s and 30′s that was all I focused on. Ideally people can start to mix in some philanthropy like Mark Zuckerberg has early in his career. I have enjoyed talking to some of the Valley entrepreneurs about this and I am impressed and how early they are thinking about giving back – much earlier than I did.”
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the single largest donor in the United States last year at the age of 29, giving nearly a billion dollars. And while we can’t all be Gates or Zuckerberg, the web makes it easier than ever to give back to local or international causes.

Better Work/Life Balance

When asked how he’s changed over the past two decades, Gates acknowledged that age has taken off some of his edge:
“Twenty years ago I would stay in the office for days at a time and not think twice about it — so I had energy and naivete on my side. Now hopefully I am a bit more mellow but with a little extra wisdom.”
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Mark Zuckerberg and the Rise of the Young Tech Philanthropists

Posted on by robbie

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan were the top philanthropists in 2013, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the 50 Most Generous Donors, giving just under $1 billion to their Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which will disperse the funds to other charitable organizations. While it should come as no surprise that the Facebook founder and his wife would donate such a large sum of money in just one year — after all, they’re known philanthropists — the fact that this duo tops the list at the young age of 29 reflects a possible change in the makeup of the country’s top charitable donors. More specifically, are we entering an age of young tech philanthropists?
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“In general, people who make their own money are most likely to give it away more than people who inherited it or earned it through investment-related activity,” Leslie Lenkowsky, professor of philanthropy and public works at Indiana University in Bloomington, told the Christian Science Monitor. “What’s playing out now is [that] the entrepreneurs of the 1990s are reaching a point in their lives where their businesses are in very good shape, and they’re looking toward other things in their lives and giving is an important part of it.” While the median age of donors on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2013 list was 72.5, as more young tech entrepreneurs begin to experience higher levels of success, it’s certainly possible that the age of large donors could decrease in the future. This is especially true given the success of innovative tech startups, which are often helmed by young adults.
Billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates — who were not included on this year’s list because their donations for the year were pledged in years prior — also are motivating people to give back. They’ve effectively challenged the world’s wealthiest individuals to give the majority of their money away through The Giving Pledge. While only a few of the world’s youngest billionaires — Zuckerberg included — have taken the pledge so far, 19 of the 50 donors on this list have signed it. Proof that a push from these well-known (and highly respected) philanthropists can influence giving. Overall, America’s biggest donors gave over $7.7 billion to nonprofits in 2013, mostly to colleges, foundations, and hospitals. If Gates and Buffett can influence a few more of these wealthy young adults to sign their pledge, just imagine what this list will look like 10 years from now. We’re guessing the median age might be a bit younger than 72.5.
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