Some test takers of California's remote bar exam - particularly people of color - reported problems with ExamSoft’s facial recognition system. As expected, some nonwhite test-takers said the AI software did not recognize them - a recurring problem with the technology - and they were forced to submit selfies repeatedly, call tech support, or shine a light on their faces to verify their identities during this week's exam.

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• Test taker Shameek Aahil Nazeer, who is Black, told the SF Chronicle that the facial recognition software repeatedly failed to recognize him and his computer crashed. He was forced to submit selfies to verify his face before each section of the test.
• Before the test, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights and privacy groups expressed concerns about ExamSoft’s facial recognition system, which they said has embedded racial biases and will disproportionately flag more people of color.
• It remains unclear what levels of discrimination may have occurred during the test. Humans are biased, and that’s why the facial recognition algorithm is biased, said Jennifer Jones, an ACLU of Northern California technology and civil liberties fellow.
• The State Bar told the ACLU that any software issues would flag four reviewers before they determine a violation occurred. ExamSoft denied that its software is biased or "disproportionately harms any individual of color."
• A federal study released last year found that facial recognition algorithms are less accurate at identifying African-American and Asian faces compared to Caucasian faces. Systems also varied widely in their accuracy, according to the NIST study.

IBM announced it will separate its managed infrastructure services unit into a new public company. New CEO Arvind Krishna said the move will allow them to focus on artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

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• Krishna announced the new company will be called NewCo. for a short period of time and hopes the separation will be finished by the end of 2021.
• Krishna, who took over in April from Ginni Rometty, made it clear that IBM will eliminate any software and service unit that doesn't align with cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
• Earlier this week, Krisha said IBM will set up an AI Center of Excellence in partnership with the Government e-Marketplace. He called AI "one of the biggest technology revolutions" of this time, noting that IBM would incorporate AI into software and systems.
• In May, he said "every company will become an AI company" as a result of digital acceleration prompted by the pandemic.

Some of this information first appeared in today's Inside Business.

AI Masterclass: Alexa is becoming more intelligent

Amazon's recent hardware event highlighted all the new Alexa-powered devices and features, many of which use AI and ML to improve Alexa's responses and understanding of what users say. In this special feature, we dive into what to expect from the Alexa of the future.

Background:

• The virtual assistant, which relies on AI technology like neural text-to-speech, is becoming more conversational, independent, and better at predicting what users are saying and what they mean through context, says Daniel Rausch, Amazon's VP of smart home and Alexa mobile...

Israeli startup SiteAware raised $10m for its AI-powered construction verification software, which will help it expand in the U.S. market. The startup's platform can digitally scan buildings under construction and develop 3D models, which are compared against the plans to flag problems that arise during construction.

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• SiteAware, formerly known as Dronomy, says its system uses AI to record and find discrepancies in the plans vs. actual construction in real-time before they become too costly. It claims it can save contractors, developers, and homebuyers millions of dollars.
• It uses autonomous drones and software to capture the site data and 3D design files to create a 3D model. AI algorithms trained on 100k construction databases compare this to site documents and send the information to analytics dashboards, which include performance and risk metrics.
• The $10m Series A funding round was led by Axon and Robert Bosch Venture Capital, along with existing investors including Lool Ventures, Oryzn Ventures, The Flying Object, and Power Capital Venture.
• Other companies that use AI in construction site reporting include HoloBuilder, Buildots, and OpenSpace.

Waymo is opening its autonomous, driverless ride-hailing service to the public in Phoenix, Ariz. Initially, Waymo will allow existing early access riders to ride along with friends and family not registered with Waymo in the company’s driverless vehicles, which covers a 50-square-mile area southeast of Phoenix. Within a few weeks, the company will open registration to any interested riders in the area.

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• The service initially served about 1,500 customers within a 100-square-mile service area. About half of that area is serviced by completely driverless vehicles, while the remaining zone requires back-up safety drivers. Waymo said vehicles featuring back-up safety drivers will return in the coming weeks. 
• The Alphabet subsidiary temporarily paused some of its ride-hailing operations in March, after COVID-19-related concerns from back-up safety drivers. The service did not discontinue completely driverless vehicles, which services smaller service area.
• Waymo did not say how many fully autonomous vehicles will be available in the Phoenix area.

New job postings in AI/ML:

AI/ML- Machine Learning Engineer
Apple | Seattle

Machine Learning Scientists/Engineers
NovoDynamics | Ann Arbor, Mich.

Deep Learning Engineer - Search and AI Research
AlphaSense | New York, NY...

Quick Hits

• Predictive models could trace outbreaks of bovine respiratory disease and identify cows at risk for the infection, which could save the industry nearly $1b annually.
• A new report about facial recognition at border crossings says the images can be shared with the government and private companies without consent and used to identify suspects in criminal investigations, despite known biases.
• See how leading sales teams are solving their challenges of selling remotely.*

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• Business Researcher
• Director of Research
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• Copy Editor

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Tweet of the Day: Erik Brynjolfsson - director of the Digital Economy Lab and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI - shared an article about Google's lung cancer detection AI.